|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited
und über 1 Million weitere Bücher verfügbar für Amazon Kindle .
Erfahren Sie mehr
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wird oft zusammen gekauft
Produktinformation
Möchten Sie die Produktinformationen aktualisieren oder Feedback zu den Produktabbildungen geben?
Ist der Verkauf dieses Produkts für Sie nicht akzeptabel? |
Mehr über die Autoren
Entdecken Sie Bücher, lesen Sie über Autoren und mehr
Produktbeschreibungen
Amazon.com
Even if you already own Nabokov's earthy, otherworldly account of his astounding life, you must buy this 1999 edition. And if you've never read Speak, Memory, you must do so at once. This volume is essential because it includes the unpublished last chapter, a pseudo-review comparing Speak, Memory with another, nonexistent memoir called When Lilacs Last. (That title refers to Whitman's poem on Lincoln's assassination and to the lilacs of Nabokov's childhood home) Chapter 16 is a key to what the imaginary reviewer accurately calls a "unique freak as autobiographies go," revealing its novel-like nature and unifying themes and images (chess, puzzles, spirals, jewels, rainbows, exile, the stained-glass shadow patterns that the future casts on the present). Maybe Nabokov thought he gave too much away, and one sees the formal superiority of ending the book with chapter 15. But the added essay is a gem that dazzles and illuminates.
You have to consult biographies like Brian Boyd's for the full, remarkable facts of Nabokov's life. A millionaire at 17 (his sister danced in Diaghilev gowns with Fabergé gems at the Winter Palace), repeatedly exiled, forced to bust out of one chrysalis after another into new lives, the writer retained only the infinite wealth of his memory and art. This book is a mosaic shaped by a mind so metaphorical that, as a babe, Nabokov perceived letters as colors, the alphabet as a rainbow.
The loss of his father is at Speak, Memory's core. This memoir is worth owning for a single paragraph alone, about the sight of Nabokov senior being tossed aloft by grateful peasants he'd been generous to--a dozen or so with locked arms flinging him up in a hip-hip-hooray ritual.
There, for an instant, the figure of my father in his wind-rippled white summer suit would be displayed, gloriously sprawled in midair.... Thrice, to the mighty heave-ho of his invisible tossers, he would fly up ... and then there he would be, on his last and loftiest flight, reclining, as if for good, against the cobalt blue of the summer noon, like one of those paradisiac personages who comfortably soar, with such a wealth of folds in their garments, on the vaulted ceiling of a church while below, one by one, the wax tapers in mortal hands light up to make a swarm of minute flames in the mist of incense, and the priest chants of eternal repose, and funeral lilies conceal the face of whoever lies there, among the swimming lights, in the open coffin.Nabokov recaptures the paradise of his youth, and acquits himself of the coldness of which some accuse him. He plays literary games, but he plays for keeps. --Tim Appelo
From Library Journal
Published as Conclusive Evidence in 1951 and later revised in 1966, Nabokov's title has been further updated with an additional, previously unseen chapter. Considering his profile in world literature, this is essential for public and academic libraries.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Welche anderen Artikel kaufen Kunden, nachdem sie diesen Artikel angesehen haben?
In diesem Buch
(Mehr dazu)
Nach einer anderen Ausgabe dieses Buches suchen.
Nach einer anderen Ausgabe dieses Buches suchen.
Einleitungssatz
The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Lesen Sie die erste Seite Ausgewählte Seiten ansehen
Buchdeckel | Copyright | Inhaltsverzeichnis | Auszug | Stichwortverzeichnis | Rückseite
The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Lesen Sie die erste Seite Ausgewählte Seiten ansehen
Buchdeckel | Copyright | Inhaltsverzeichnis | Auszug | Stichwortverzeichnis | Rückseite
Vorgeschlagene Tags zu ähnlichen Produkten(Was ist das?)Setzen Sie den ersten relevanten Tag hinzu (ein Schlüsselwort, das mit diesem Produkt in engem Zusammenhang steht).
|
Kundenrezensionen
Die hilfreichsten Kundenrezensionen
2 von 2 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Format:Taschenbuch
Yes Nab thoroughly enjoys airing his artistic greivances and attacks the literary battlefield looking to root out the common, mediocre and vulgar. But forget literature and criticism for this book reaches heights far above such opinions and displays the wonderous writing that can occur when a genius writes about his life.
He was attempting an impersonal egoism or an objective description of events that are very personal and private. Life in its most minute, closely observed detail is where the energy and substance for Nabokov is. He writes as if he takes nothing (the blue of the sky, the passing of time) for granted and by distancing himself is able to see the wonder and awe that is behind everything; he sees the world as the supreme artistic acheivment and is one of the few writers who acurrately captures the exhilarating nature of existence.
The main reason i am writing this is because i think it totally unfair for the reviewer below to judge Nab's relationship to his brother so harshly. I give Nab credit for having the courage to write about something so personal, that hurt him so much. He felt awful about how he treated his brother (he wasn't even a teenager yet; give him a break! or have you never treated anyone unfairly? ) and i found his writing of it to be one of the highlights of the book. To compare him to H.H. is not only wholly insane, but is also completely unfair and unkind. Humbert Humbert sexually takes advantage of a young girl and you sympathize with him more than Nab? Cookoo nuts. Did you read over the heartache he felt when writing about his brother, his dismay and futile anger towards his younger self? It's so easy for biographers and later critics to judge someone elses character (even Boyd and Schiff are guilty) but the point is it is unfair to do so because we ultimately don't know all the circumstances and should not judge.
How easy it would have been for Nab to not write about that painful episode, to polish up the picture of himself so everyone gushes (aww, he's not only a great artist but a nice guy); but no, he boldly presents things about himself that are not likeable and realizes that they are not likeable. For this he deserves much credit for observing and contemplating himself fairly and coming to terms with the fact that he has made some painful mistakes with his relationships toward others. Who hasn't?
1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Format:Taschenbuch
I had real trouble with the first 50 or so pages of 'Speak, Memory'. Contrary to what the official reviews say, I found that this book contained much recitation of dates, names, places etc, and then a whole heap of very boring passages about politics, history and butterflies to boot. Such passages pepper the book, but they are very easy to skip - and at the risk of seeming a philistine, I did indeed skip most of them, or at least only skim read them.
However I skipped them to get to what lay waiting on the pages that followed: this book has in it the most breathtakingly beautiful and achingly perfect prose I've every read. Words that sweep over you and leave your heart beating a little faster. Descriptions so vivid you can feel, see, smell, hear them. Childhood episodes so familiar and so neatly presented that you'll be removed to your own childhood again, only to be brought back with a bump when the chapter ends.
Although I found great expanses of the novel tedious, after reading each of those jewel-like passages of prose, I ached to read more Nabokov, an author I never thought I would read. "Speak, Memory" has left me amazed - I never knew that the English Language could be so moving, perfect and beautiful. I'm so very glad I persevered and read it to the end!
1 von 1 Kunden fanden die folgende Rezension hilfreich
Format:Taschenbuch
Turning to a writer's autobiography after adoring many of his works of fiction carries disastrous potential, and so I began Speak, Memory nervously, hoping not to lose my trust in Nabokov. I should not have doubted the man. He approaches the first two decades of his life with such an engaging mixture of nostalgic curiosity and bemused cynicism that the characters--the infinite chain of nannies and headmasters, the relatives, the compatriots--come marching out of the exile of the past and into the present embrace of his words. He does not sidestep issues of memory and accuracy with a glossed-over surface of fact-checking; rather, he admits the role of imagination in recalling and deftly handles the problem of time, avoiding phrases and metaphors even remotely reminiscent of song lyrics. Speak, Memory is as fun and as involved a read as Pale Fire or Laughter in the Dark. Don't be discouraged by its classification as "non-fiction," for Nabokov can handle reality as well as the non-real.
Möchten Sie weitere Rezensionen zu diesem Artikel anzeigen?
Waren diese Rezensionen hilfreich?
Wir wollen von Ihnen hören.
Die neuesten Kundenrezensionen
Beautifully written, and gives interesting historical insight.
A must read for all of Nabokov's fans. After reading this you'll be able to boast about knowing all the dodgy details you ever wanted to know, like the name of the dog of his first... Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 28. Oktober 2006 von Iris Neva
Stunning, beautiful, poetic, but not for the general reader!
Nabakov is indisputably one on of the greatest prose-stylists of the 20th century. Nabokov utilizes his full range of writing tricks, styles, and poetics to describe his life in... Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 26. Juni 2000 von Marcus Grady Kaiser
A lyrical, mesmerizing experience
Speak, Memory is one of about five books I could read over and over again. Nabakov's lyrical style is dream-like. His humility is amazing. Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 12. Mai 2000 von Marc A. Jolley
A literary autobiography by a brilliant man
This is the autobiography of the author of Lolita. Nabokov was a Russian intellectual born to a rich family in czarist Russia in 1899. Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 11. Januar 2000 veröffentlicht
A book to read more than once.
I thoroughly enjoyed Speak, Memory. If you have an interest in Nabokov, Russia at the turn of the (last) century, exquisite writing, or the genre of biography/autobiography, you... Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 3. Januar 2000 veröffentlicht
excellent edition
It is pointless for me to review this masterpiece. I would just like to say that this edition (Everyman's Library) is excellent, providing a well-written introduction and... Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 17. November 1999 von Giuseppe A. Paleologo
Beautiful, stunning, very, very irritating.
I have spent the summer drowning in Nabokovian puddles, but this autobiography is the least satisfactory yet. Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 1. September 1999 veröffentlicht
A dioramic glimpse of a masterful author
In this reflective gift to his wife, Nabokov employs his creative genius to both entertain the reader and to seemingly unburden his soul. Lesen Sie weiter...
Veröffentlicht am 9. August 1999 von jcannon@massmed.org
Photographic Memory
"I am going to show a few slides..." beginnt der Autor das achte Kapitel. Und im Folgenden ist es schwer zu unterscheiden, ob er diese Bilder "wirklich" oder... Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 19. Juli 1999 veröffentlicht
eloquent but not very revealing ...
About halfway through Speak, Memory I came to the conclusion that it was the most unrevealing autobiography I'd ever read. Lesen Sie weiter...
Am 8. Juni 1999 veröffentlicht
Kunden diskutieren
|
Das Forum zu diesem Produkt
Fragen stellen, Meinungen austauschen, Einblicke gewinnen Aktive Diskussionen in ähnlichen Foren
Kundendiskussionen durchsuchen
|
Ähnliche Foren
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Lieblingslisten
|
|
Ähnliche Artikel finden
Anhand des Sachgebietes nach ähnlichen Produkten suchen:
Ihr Kommentar
Möchten Sie die Produktinformationen aktualisieren oder Feedback zu den Produktabbildungen geben?
|
