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Product Description
Written in mischievous and magically flowing prose, Ada or Ardor is a romance that follows Ada from her first childhood meeting with Van Veen on his uncle's country estate, in a 'dream-bright' America, through eighty years of rapture, as they cross continents, are continually parted and reunited, come to learn the strange truth about their singular relationship and, decades later, put their extraordinary experiences into words.
About the Author
Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) was born in St Petersburg. He wrote his first literary works in Russian, but rose to international prominence as a masterly prose stylist for the novels he composed in English, most famously, Lolita. Between 1923 and 1940 he published novels, short stories, plays, poems and translations in the Russian language and established himself as one of the most outstanding Russian émigré writers.
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First Sentence
'All happy families are more or less dissimilar; all unhappy ones are more or less alike,' says a great Russian writer in the beginning of a famous novel (Anna Arkadievitch Karenina, transfigured into English by R. G. Stonelower, Mount Tabor Ltd., 1880). Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
'All happy families are more or less dissimilar; all unhappy ones are more or less alike,' says a great Russian writer in the beginning of a famous novel (Anna Arkadievitch Karenina, transfigured into English by R. G. Stonelower, Mount Tabor Ltd., 1880). Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 29 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
To write a review of Ada is almost impossible except to say that it is the book in which Nabokov, the greatest prose stylist in English, uses his mastery of the language and his great knowledge of European literary history to his greatest extent and evidently enjoys himself! The whole book is choc-a-bloc with word-play, literary puzzles, allusions to other works, hidden quotations, alliteration, streams of consciousness, history, science fiction, dollops of French, helpings of Russian, laces of Latin, poetry, catalogues of erotica, and many many other things..this is a literature lover's delight but requires great concentration; however, even more so than Lolita, the dedicated reader will be delighted and rewarded like he or she has never been before. This is Nabokov at his literary peak. Rarely can any writer of English have written prose of this calibre. Awe-inspiring is the only word I can think of to describe it.
The plot, as it is, deals with the love story between Ada and Van Veen who happen to be first cousins from their first meeting as young teenagers to their old age and eventual death and is set in a parallel world to Earth called Antiterra which is similar to--yet different in some geographical and historical aspects-- to our own Earth (or Terra)...
It is quite a long book too (500 odd pages of dense text) but eminently worth the effort and time. The only problem is once you have read Nabokov, and especially Ada, no other novel gives as much pleasure afterwards so every other fictional book afterwards pales in comparison (so far...)! I would give my left arm to be able to write prose like this!
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The key to understanding this novel and it's inevitable enjoyment is revealed by Nabokov's insight into the illusory nature of time and space. The story is set in a fantastical Eden like world of aristocratic privilege, incest, botanical and zoological manifestations and subverted morality. The essence of this historical memoir is seen through the recollections of Van and his one and only 'true' love Ada. Their memories are relics of a distant past (spanning ninety years), contorted by their childhood passion, shaped and manipulated by subsequent events, and deformed by the nature of time itself. The present, or 'nowness' being the only tangible impression that can ever have any meaning for conscious thought. Indeed it is this aspect of the novel that controls the parallel universe in which the story unfolds. Memories that are dependent on the recollections of the moment and not based on an exact sequence of past events. These events are to be seen as shadows of human existance, lengthening and shortening over time, nourishing thought with emotional intensities and altering perceptions of the past. Through this vista Nabokov offers a lush insight into the nature of love and decay.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'll say straight away that this is one of my favourite books, and one that I often come back to. However, no one who does not like a challenge should bother to attempt it. Like 'Moby Dick' or 'Ulysses' it takes time and patience. And, like these two classics, it is very much worth it.
The world it creates is mid-atlantic and trans-european, like Gorbachev's idea of a Common European Home from the atlantic to the urals, with north america thrown in. It is, in fact, the personal world which Nabokov inhabited, modern america founded in Russia.
There are countless references to other classics and much fun is to be had spotting them. In a delicious twist he references his own previous work too. The writing is awe-inspring, the central characters perfectly drawn. Will they / won't they? It is pure anticipation. No one writes like this any more.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Disappearing into the distance
Reading this is the literary equivalent of going on a training run with Usain Bolt. You keep pace with him, putting in the effort and enjoying the company of one of the greats, and... Read more
Published 5 months ago by M. Isham
the Nab's only sloppy work
Try as I might, I simply cannot get myself to enjoy or even appreciate this book. I am a longtime Nabokov fan and have read most of his books as well as several biographies and... Read more
Published 12 months ago by rob crawford
Joycean Nabokov
A work of genius, and possibly Nabokov's most Joycean, intertextual work.
A perverse family saga set in an imaginary world, tantalisingly close to but strangely different to... Read more
A perverse family saga set in an imaginary world, tantalisingly close to but strangely different to... Read more
Published on 25 Sep 2009 by A. Osborne
An artistic pinnacle
Magical prose, sensuous deviancy, and a quasi-utopian vision of a transfigured Earth: Nabokov was a dreamer and a half. Read more
Published on 11 Aug 2009 by Black Glove
grab a dictionary.
Honestly, there is more in this book than can be taken in upon first reading, it is staggeringly good. Nabokov rated it his best and, of course, it is. Read more
Published on 29 July 2008 by Mr. Omnibus Biscuit
Tiresome
I read Lolita and, of course, it's great. So I had high hopes. But this is just too much like hard work for small change. Read more
Published on 26 July 2007 by J. Pierson
Overrated
Call me a philistine or a dilettante but I found this book tiresome to read due to the overabundance of self-indulgent and irritating "wordplay", especially the gratuitous and... Read more
Published on 25 April 2005
"Ada","Ardor"....'Ad enough!
Having read all of his other novels and short stories, this is where I lost interest. As another reviewer mentions, V.N considered this his finest. Read more
Published on 12 July 2004 by "pavano"
Nabokov just misses the mark this time
In comparison to Nabokov earlier works, the great authour called this book his greatest achievement. However im afraid the great man was incorrect this time. Read more
Published on 25 May 2002
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