Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Penguin Books (2011), Edition: New edition, Paperback, 112 pages
Description
"Transparent Things revolves around the four visits of the hero--sullen, gawky Hugh Person--to Switzerland . . .nbsp;nbsp;As a young publisher, Hugh is sent to interview R., falls in love with Armande on the way, wrests her, afternbsp;nbsp;multiple humiliations, from a grinning Scandinavian and returns to NY with his bride. . . . Eight years later--following a murder, a period of madness and a brief imprisonment--Hugh makes a lone sentimental journey to wheedle out his past. . . . The several strands of dream, memory, and time [are] set off against the literary theorizing of R. and, more centrally, against the world of observable objects."nbsp;nbsp;--Martin Amis
Media reviews
A work may be modern and realistic and have the qualities that make it a perfectly crafted object. Nabokov never wrote a sentence that wasn't polished and gleaming, but his short Transparent Things qualifies for my imaginary collection of Faberge eggs. It is about transparency and the glitter of
Show More
things -- pencils, windows -- transfigured in its own glassy medium. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member Niecierpek
It is one of the last novels written by Nabokov.
The novel is the antithesis of the title- nothing is transparent, self explanatory, clear or simple. The motivation guiding people is equally mysterious to an individual as it is to others judging his behaviour. The mystery of being or not being is
The plot is relatively simple. We accompany Hugh Person, an editor of an American publishing house, during his four consecutive visits to Switzerland.
The style is typical for Nabokov, and typical to many modern East European writers: philosophising, aphoristic, poetic and at the same time self mocking and ironic. Since I am reading Milan Kundera at the same time, I see an uncanny similarity between the two in both style and narration technique. Another writer that comes immediately to mind with a very similar technique is Stanislaw Lem.
The novel is the antithesis of the title- nothing is transparent, self explanatory, clear or simple. The motivation guiding people is equally mysterious to an individual as it is to others judging his behaviour. The mystery of being or not being is
Show More
profoundly locked and closed to our understanding.The plot is relatively simple. We accompany Hugh Person, an editor of an American publishing house, during his four consecutive visits to Switzerland.
The style is typical for Nabokov, and typical to many modern East European writers: philosophising, aphoristic, poetic and at the same time self mocking and ironic. Since I am reading Milan Kundera at the same time, I see an uncanny similarity between the two in both style and narration technique. Another writer that comes immediately to mind with a very similar technique is Stanislaw Lem.
Show Less
LibraryThing member dczapka
In a move that will no doubt come as a shock to Nabokov fans, the title of this book is about as far from accurate in light of the whole story.
What is wonderful about this book is that it is so simple: a man, whose most important moments take place around the same region of Switzerland, finds
Nabokov employs an astounding economy of language to show the depth of Person's psychosis, an illness that appears to be no more than boredom but ultimately evolves into something far more dangerous. His fixation on simple objects and the intense physical descriptions of those objects is in stark contrast to unreliability with which we see Hugh's real world -- a fact that becomes astonishingly clear in the eerie final scene.
It may be worth reading twice (and at a brief 104 pages, it's not an excessive investment) to catch the moments of wordplay and narrative misdirection that make this such an interesting read the first time around.
What is wonderful about this book is that it is so simple: a man, whose most important moments take place around the same region of Switzerland, finds
Show More
himself drawn there at four very different moments in his life. What happens plotwise could be summed up, rather transparently, in a sentence or two, but that's not what really matters.Nabokov employs an astounding economy of language to show the depth of Person's psychosis, an illness that appears to be no more than boredom but ultimately evolves into something far more dangerous. His fixation on simple objects and the intense physical descriptions of those objects is in stark contrast to unreliability with which we see Hugh's real world -- a fact that becomes astonishingly clear in the eerie final scene.
It may be worth reading twice (and at a brief 104 pages, it's not an excessive investment) to catch the moments of wordplay and narrative misdirection that make this such an interesting read the first time around.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Clara53
While with some authors one might get away with less than full attention, with Nabokov it's almost like a prerequisite for the reader to have a single-minded concentration, lest you miss his train of thought or his unique way of expression. Almost always it's like intellectual exercise. This book's
Show More
title, "Transparent Things", does mean just that at first, as the author focuses on the history of some random "objects" in the story, but Nabokov doesn't stop there: his protagonist and those around him become "transparent" too - no less would be expected of him. The book starts on a rather lugubrious note, and with some dark sarcasm the author does lighten it up in the middle, but all in all, it's a life of agony on display. This one was a bit too heavy for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind
When Nabokov plays with words, the rest of us benefit for it. Short, but thick. Go through it multiple times, to (1) savor Nabokov's masterly use of language and (2) find out what on earth is going on here.
LibraryThing member Karlus
For me, this slender volume is notable much more for its virtuoso display of Nabokov's magnificent literary style than for its particular story. From the back-cover description by Martin Amis, "Transparent Things revolves around four visits of the hero - sullen gawky Hugh Person - to Switzerland .
The overall story floats in and out, in non-linear sequence, in imagination and in reality, and in the past, present and future, including even the afterlife. In fact, being Nabokov's next to last novel, it briefly collects and develops ideas of the afterlife that have flitted through previous novels, and have been of interest to him ever since the simple religious beliefs of his mother that he described in Speak Memory.
A chapter from the hereafter(!) describes how the effects of an unknowable and unprovable afterlife might nevertheless surround us, completely unnoticed, during our entire lives and how they just might influence events in the here and now, even though certainly never determining the course or outcome of any event.
It is an intriguing philosophical speculation that Nabokov puts to the reader. But, more to the point, we finally see (but only after rereading and rethinking, of course!) how cleanly he has woven the speculation into his story and how, indeed, it finally does affect the outcome. It is as transparent as clear glass that one can finally see only by looking at it.
Show More
. . [who later] makes a lone sentimental journey to wheedle out his past... [through] several strands of dream, memory and time."The overall story floats in and out, in non-linear sequence, in imagination and in reality, and in the past, present and future, including even the afterlife. In fact, being Nabokov's next to last novel, it briefly collects and develops ideas of the afterlife that have flitted through previous novels, and have been of interest to him ever since the simple religious beliefs of his mother that he described in Speak Memory.
A chapter from the hereafter(!) describes how the effects of an unknowable and unprovable afterlife might nevertheless surround us, completely unnoticed, during our entire lives and how they just might influence events in the here and now, even though certainly never determining the course or outcome of any event.
It is an intriguing philosophical speculation that Nabokov puts to the reader. But, more to the point, we finally see (but only after rereading and rethinking, of course!) how cleanly he has woven the speculation into his story and how, indeed, it finally does affect the outcome. It is as transparent as clear glass that one can finally see only by looking at it.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Marse
The hero of "Transparent Things" is an editor for a publishing company. He travels to a town in Switzerland to meet with an author, and there becomes involved with a woman who becomes his wife. It is a very short, seemingly simple, story (104 pages), yet Nabokov manages to reveal layer upon layer
Show More
of complexity in the telling of Hugh Person's love/life story. I know a book has something special when I begin reading again from the first page a second after finishing the last. Nabokov caught me off guard here. I usually am irritated by his erudite, yet disdainful playing with the reader. Maybe I am just getting used to his style...? Show Less
LibraryThing member BlackGlove
The dull rainbow of a fog-dogged moon
..."he grunted and sighed in his sleep, dreaming of large unwieldy blocks of blackness"...
I suppose it goes without saying that Nabokov's prose is brilliantly inventive, full of vivid turns of phrase and dark humour, but how does the book stack up as a whole?
Transparent Things is a subtle book: the way Nabokov shows Hugh Person is surreal and sublime, yet also mundane and melancholic. All in all Transparent Things is an elegant work - a masterclass in the art of long short-story writing: understated, wistful, perceptive, deft, elusive and engaging -: definitely worth reading for the imaginative writing.
..."he grunted and sighed in his sleep, dreaming of large unwieldy blocks of blackness"...
I suppose it goes without saying that Nabokov's prose is brilliantly inventive, full of vivid turns of phrase and dark humour, but how does the book stack up as a whole?
Show More
Well, Transparent Things is a novella about the life and memories of a seemingly average man. Hugh Person is his name, and this is the snapshot story of his stand-out moments which (as the short chapters reveal) are both strange and familiar, humdrum and disastrous.Transparent Things is a subtle book: the way Nabokov shows Hugh Person is surreal and sublime, yet also mundane and melancholic. All in all Transparent Things is an elegant work - a masterclass in the art of long short-story writing: understated, wistful, perceptive, deft, elusive and engaging -: definitely worth reading for the imaginative writing.
Show Less
LibraryThing member stravinsky
lost me a little, there, nabokov..
LibraryThing member mimal
summer-2013, fraudio, published-1972, satire, switzerland
Read on August 13, 2013
Transparent Things
Fraudio> rosado> Read by Christopher Lane.
pub 1972
summer 2013
tbr busting 2013
short story (105 pages)> murder and madness
tongue in cheek
sleazy> paedophillic undertones again
from wiki: This short novel
Hugh Person is a Who? person, another dislikeable character that flooded in from the Nabokovian nib. Fantastic use of language showpieced in put-downs and acrid observations.
5* Pale Fire
4* Sebastian Knight
3* Lolita
3* The Eye
2* Transparent Things
4 likes
Read on August 13, 2013
Transparent Things
Fraudio> rosado> Read by Christopher Lane.
pub 1972
summer 2013
tbr busting 2013
short story (105 pages)> murder and madness
tongue in cheek
sleazy> paedophillic undertones again
from wiki: This short novel
Show More
tells the story of Hugh Person, a young American editor, and the memory of his four trips to a small village in Switzerland over the course of nearly two decades.Hugh Person is a Who? person, another dislikeable character that flooded in from the Nabokovian nib. Fantastic use of language showpieced in put-downs and acrid observations.
5* Pale Fire
4* Sebastian Knight
3* Lolita
3* The Eye
2* Transparent Things
4 likes
Show Less
LibraryThing member zasmine
The extremely simple story of Hugh Person and his lover Armande is told with this wonderful, delicious examination of little snippets of life. From the 'ask me what I can do' ambitions of a humdrum life to the description of Swiss hot chocolate to its description of second-rate Swiss hotels- there
After note: some of Nabokov's descriptions of human digestion are the most 'beautiful' yet biologically accurate I've read in literature.
Show More
is a savoring in the ordinary that shines through these pages. I read chapter-1 multiple times to make peace with 'transparent things', but it will still need more re-reads.After note: some of Nabokov's descriptions of human digestion are the most 'beautiful' yet biologically accurate I've read in literature.
Show Less
Subjects
Awards
National Book Award (Finalist — Fiction — 1973)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1972
Physical description
112 p.
ISBN
0140181717 / 9780140181715