Laughter in the Dark (Penguin Modern Classics)
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Product Description
Product Description
Albinus - rich, married middle-aged and respectable - is an art critic and aspiring filmmaker who lusts after the coquettish young cinema usherette Margot. Gradually he seduces her and convinces himself he is irresistible to her, but Margot has other plans. She wants to be a film star, and when Albinus introduces her to the American movie producer Axel Rex, she sees her chance - and plotting, duplicity and tragedy ensue.
About the Author
Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) was one of the great writers of the twentieth century, as well as a translator and lepidopterist. His works include, from the Russian novels, The Luzhin Defense and The Gift; from the English novels, Lolita, Pnin, Pale Fire and Ada; the autobiographical Speak, Memory; translations of Alice in Wonderland into Russian and Eugene Onegin into English; and lectures on literature. All of the fiction and Speak, Memory are published in Penguin.
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First Sentence
Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
When I read in the afterword that Nabokov once claimed this his "worst novel", I was amazed. I admit I've only read Pale Fire and Lolita (both superb, the first a fab intellectual piece of fictonal ambiguous jigsaw-puzzling, the second just flat-out superb), but this I enjoyed just as much. It's certainly doesn't strike one as being quite as zestily written as Lolita, or as devilish as Pale Fire, it is certainly a fine novel. I can only say this: Nabokov's worst novel stands head and shoulders above many other novelist's best. Laughter in the Dark is a clever, sprly written (Nabokov's sentences are, even if not the finest he would come to write, still remarkable, and sparkle with pixie-like intelligence) novel of one man's destruction at the hands of a young female mistress. It's melodramatic to say it, but the novel is worth reading almost for it's first paragraph alone.
It's sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, sometimes shocking, and there are certain bits which make you loath certain characters. There are times when it's chattery like a movie, times (the remarkable final scene), when it's the sightless equivalent of a silent film. I loved every page. It reads quickly, and he packs a lot into a very small space. He might have thought it his least accomplished novel, but it's also the most accesible of his I've read so far, and an ideal starting place. He's one of the centuries very finest writers, no question.
It's sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, sometimes shocking, and there are certain bits which make you loath certain characters. There are times when it's chattery like a movie, times (the remarkable final scene), when it's the sightless equivalent of a silent film. I loved every page. It reads quickly, and he packs a lot into a very small space. He might have thought it his least accomplished novel, but it's also the most accesible of his I've read so far, and an ideal starting place. He's one of the centuries very finest writers, no question.
Format:Paperback
'He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster.
This is the whole of the story and we might have left it at that had there not been profit and pleasure in the telling; and although there is plenty of space on a gravestone to contain, bound in moss, the abridged version of a man's life, detail is always welcome. '
And, as Nabokov has summarised the story and told us the ending in the first paragraph, what's to be gained by reading the detail? Why read about Albert Albinus and his doomed relationship with Margot, and the failure of his marriage to Elisabeth? This is hardly a new plot: novels are filled with fools and failures; villains and vixens; and tears and tragedy. Albinus is tragically naïve; Axel Rex is a heartless opportunist and Margot is cruelly manipulative. In fewer than two hundred pages we follow Albinus from comparative light into absolute darkness, through a series of choices (often associated with windows and doors) to a disastrous conclusion. Can there possibly be enjoyment in reading that? Yes, because of the way Nabokov provides the detail and uses humour.
`The door leading from the hall to the landing is wide open, too.'
This is the fourth Nabokov novel I've read, and I've enjoyed them all. In addition to `Laughter in the Dark', I've read `Lolita', `Bend Sinister' and `Pale Fire'. I'm not sure which to tackle next.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
This is the whole of the story and we might have left it at that had there not been profit and pleasure in the telling; and although there is plenty of space on a gravestone to contain, bound in moss, the abridged version of a man's life, detail is always welcome. '
And, as Nabokov has summarised the story and told us the ending in the first paragraph, what's to be gained by reading the detail? Why read about Albert Albinus and his doomed relationship with Margot, and the failure of his marriage to Elisabeth? This is hardly a new plot: novels are filled with fools and failures; villains and vixens; and tears and tragedy. Albinus is tragically naïve; Axel Rex is a heartless opportunist and Margot is cruelly manipulative. In fewer than two hundred pages we follow Albinus from comparative light into absolute darkness, through a series of choices (often associated with windows and doors) to a disastrous conclusion. Can there possibly be enjoyment in reading that? Yes, because of the way Nabokov provides the detail and uses humour.
`The door leading from the hall to the landing is wide open, too.'
This is the fourth Nabokov novel I've read, and I've enjoyed them all. In addition to `Laughter in the Dark', I've read `Lolita', `Bend Sinister' and `Pale Fire'. I'm not sure which to tackle next.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Put aside a couple of days to read this mini-masterpiece about an ordinary man whose life falls apart because he has an affair with a deceitful hussy. The brilliance of the book lies in the fact that, while you know the anti-hero has brought about his own downfall, you still feel sorry for him by the end. Some scenes are comical, others are creepy. It's a must!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Painfully dull
This was my first Nabokov novel and one that I had to read for a module on my university degree.
I had heard many good things about Nabokov and was very excited to read... Read more
I had heard many good things about Nabokov and was very excited to read... Read more
Published 18 months ago by IamWendle
Laughter in the Dark
`Laughter in the Dark' (originally; `Camera Obscura') is a very early novel by Nabokov and somewhat of a precursor to his later magnum opus `Lolita'. Read more
Published on 14 April 2010 by TomCat
Effortless prose
Effortless prose that flows easily on the page. It shows how a masterpiece can also be a page turning thriller. Read more
Published on 14 April 2008 by Jane Austen
Good, but not great
This was the first Nabokov that I have read, and there was certainly enough here to make me interested in reading more. That said, I found this book strangely unsatisfying. Read more
Published on 27 July 2004 by Depressaholic
An underated masterpiece of personal ruin
The undisputed master of the opening lines of a novel, Nabokov does not fail to dent his reputation with Laughter in the Dark. Read more
Published on 26 Jan 2002
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