Curso de literatura europea

by Vladimir Nabokov

Other authorsFrancisco Torres Oliver (Translator)

Paper Book, 1987

Call number

809.3

Genres

Nonfiction

All Topics

Collections

Your library, Literatura

Publication

Barcelona: Ediciones B, 1987, 547 p., 17,5 cm (Libor Amigo, Ensayo; 28)

Description

The acclaimed author of Lolita offers unique insight into works by James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Jane Austen, and others-with an introduction by John Updike. In the 1940s, when Vladimir Nabokov first embarked on his academic career in the United States, he brought with him hundreds of original lectures on the authors he most admired. For two decades those lectures served as the basis for Nabokov's teaching, first at Wellesley and then at Cornell, as he introduced undergraduates to the delights of great fiction. This volume collects Nabokov's famous lectures on Western European literature, with analysis and commentary on Charles Dickens's Bleak House, Gustav Flaubert's Madam Bovary, Marcel Proust's The Walk by Swann's Place, Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," and other works. This volume also includes photographic reproductions of Nabokov's original notes, revealing his own edits, underlined passages, and more. Edited and with a Foreword by Fredson Bowers. Introduction by John Updike.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member bloom

Excellent and brilliantly witty and dry series of lecture courses on literature from the master, Vladimir Nabokov. In this volume, Nabokov fights against all interpretive lenses, he denounces the sociological, political, and autobiographical perspectives on literature, arguing that a true reader

should pay attention to the detail of the author's narrative, to the artistry and creativity, and not get drawn into banal generalizations. He writes that "the novels in this series are supreme fairy tales" (pg. 2).

According to Nabokov, good reader should:

1. Have an imagination
2. Have a memory
3. Have a dictionary
4. Have some artistic sense

In this volume, Nabokov lectures on a wide variety of great literature, including Jane Austin's `Mansfield Park,' Charles Dickens' `Bleak House,' `Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (an unusual choice at the time), `Madame Bovary' by Flaubert, Proust's great `a la recherché,' `the Metamorphosis,' by Kafka, `Ulysses,' by Joyce, and an excellent essay called `The Art of Literature and Commensense.'

This volume is filled with pleasurable surprises, especially the marvelous facsimiles of Nabokov's lecture preparations with complete annotations, and many wonderful diagrams and illustrations of the works analyzed. He has some great drawings of Gregor Samsa the beetle, and the floor-map of his apartment. It really helps the reader appreciate the work unlike the bulk of literary criticism, which seeks to mystify and empower the interpreter. This is a true appreciation of the novel form, and a classic of lit criticism from one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. His depth and breadth of understanding and attention to detail will astound you.

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LibraryThing member grimoire

Structure! Style! Themes! As the earlier reviewer wrote, Mr. Nabakov has no interest in any ideological/socio-political readings of any novel. And he only has time for the *great* works. He does remind me, however, how far from the text we often go in literary studies. He sees a novel as a

completed jigsaw puzzle and his joy lies in taking out the individual pieces and then reconstructing the puzzle. And joy he has, and much to teach us, I think. Plus his own use of language is delicious.

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LibraryThing member Eoin

If you ever wanted to know what a scholar who can write with depth and immediacy about masterpieces has to say, this is the one. Sip or gulp, this book can be read in minute segments or holus bolus and much can be gained. Worth it.

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