- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (26 Mar 1981)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140047344
- ISBN-13: 978-0140047349
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,605,787 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Thirteen Stories
18 Sep 2007
Format:Hardcover
Vladimir Nabokov (1899 to 1977) is a Russian born writer who lived in western Europe and the US, then retired in Switzerland. He has a medium sized body of work with numerous novels and short works. Most know him for his 1955 creation of Lolita, which he wrote and re-wrote for over twenty years before the final product. It was based on a real life French story, but set in America.
Tyrants Destroyed and Other stories was published in 1975, and is based on a series of twelve Russian stories written in the 1920s and 30s, translated by Dmitri Nabokov, plus one new English story written in the US in 1951.
The first story, Tyrants destroyed, dates to 1938 and is a narrative by a schoolteacher, who has become an insomniac and is obsessed with his hatred of his country's dictator who he knew personally as a youth. This hatred has become a neurosis which "obliterates everything else from his life." The problem is that it is quite a general attack and it could be any dictator, so the reader is left in doubt to who is the subject of the narrative.
Of the whole collection, I liked about three or four of the stories. The others were less interesting for myself. I liked A Nursery Tale which is about a man who meets the devil. Also, the story of Music is excellent. It is about who meets a former lover at a concert or recital. I was less excited about A Matter of Chance and Perfection.
In any case, this is an interesting collection by Nabokov. Most of the stories are entertaining, and a few are excellent.
List of stories:
Tyrants Destroyed
A Nursery Tale
Music
Lik
Recruiting
Terror
The Admiralty Spire
A Matter of Chance
In Memory of L.I. Shignev
Bachman
Perfection
Vasiliy Shishkov
The Vane Sisters (the American story)
Tyrants Destroyed and Other stories was published in 1975, and is based on a series of twelve Russian stories written in the 1920s and 30s, translated by Dmitri Nabokov, plus one new English story written in the US in 1951.
The first story, Tyrants destroyed, dates to 1938 and is a narrative by a schoolteacher, who has become an insomniac and is obsessed with his hatred of his country's dictator who he knew personally as a youth. This hatred has become a neurosis which "obliterates everything else from his life." The problem is that it is quite a general attack and it could be any dictator, so the reader is left in doubt to who is the subject of the narrative.
Of the whole collection, I liked about three or four of the stories. The others were less interesting for myself. I liked A Nursery Tale which is about a man who meets the devil. Also, the story of Music is excellent. It is about who meets a former lover at a concert or recital. I was less excited about A Matter of Chance and Perfection.
In any case, this is an interesting collection by Nabokov. Most of the stories are entertaining, and a few are excellent.
List of stories:
Tyrants Destroyed
A Nursery Tale
Music
Lik
Recruiting
Terror
The Admiralty Spire
A Matter of Chance
In Memory of L.I. Shignev
Bachman
Perfection
Vasiliy Shishkov
The Vane Sisters (the American story)
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