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Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (Penguin Modern Classics)
 
 
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Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (Penguin Modern Classics) (Paperback)

by Vladimir Nabokov (Author) "'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..." (more)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
RRP: £10.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 512 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (6 April 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141181877
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141181875
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 57,407 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #14 in  Books > Fiction > 20th Century Classics > Nabokov, Vladimir
    #14 in  Books > Fiction > Cult Authors > Nabokov

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Product Description

Product Description

Written in mischievous and magically flowing prose, this is Nabokov's 'other' great love story; with some of Lolita's perversity and much more playfulness. Romance follows Ada and Van from their first childhood meeting through eight years of rapture, in a book which is regarded by many to be Nabokov's richest and most ambitious.


About the Author

Vladimir Nabokov is one of the greatest literary icons of the twentieth century. His work is published around the world, and a number of his books continue to be best-selling titles, most obviously in the case of his famous work LOLITA.
Inside This Book (Learn More)
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
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (Penguin Modern Classics)
78% buy the item featured on this page:
Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (Penguin Modern Classics) 3.9 out of 5 stars (10)
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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars In a class of its own. Awe-inspiring prose., 13 Dec 2004
By Mr. A. Jehangir - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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!

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Of Space and Time, 17 Mar 2006
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.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars buyer beware, 13 May 2003
By R. Manley "rustlem" (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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

5.0 out of 5 stars 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
Published 1 month ago by A. Osborne

5.0 out of 5 stars An artistic pinnacle
Lollapalooza. Magical prose, sensuous deviancy, and a quasi-utopian vision of a transfigured Earth: Nabokov was a dreamer and a half. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Black Glove

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than most could know, so 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 15 months ago by Mr. Oliver Hickman

2.0 out of 5 stars 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 Jul 2007 by J. Pierson

3.0 out of 5 stars 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

1.0 out of 5 stars "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 Jul 2004 by pavano

3.0 out of 5 stars 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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