Thursday, November 29, 2012

King, Queen, Knave-By Nabokov


Why am I always disappointed in a book when I have finished it. This one is no exception.

After finishing a book I try to put together the plot of the story which is almost always not very complicated. The story can be related in no more than fifty to seventy pages. And yet, the book is no less than three hundred pages.

I have concluded that author writes and repeats same points,  as for example, two people being in love, in various surroundings and in various words. Perhaps, to show author's mastery of the language. This is to me extraneous.

This author is a masterful writer. He commands the language beautifully. I love him for that. I was enamoured when I read following, "he was a bachelor with a beautiful marble wife, a passionate hobbyist without anything to collect, an explorer not knowing on what mountain to die, a voracious reader of unmemorable books, a happy healthy failure."

(Of course, I would have preferred "unwritten" in place of "unmemorable" and "a successful failure" in place of "happy healthy failure".)

I have come across many more new words in his books than I have ever in any other author. For example;

fripperies-luxury
plage-sandy beach
vivieur-enjoyer of excesses
revanche-revenge
adumbrated-obscure

I will continue to forage his books.






No comments:

Post a Comment