Author: Vladimir Nabokov
Title: "The bite of life and other stories"
Number of pages: 717
the first time I witnessed so beautifully chosen words, sentences filled to the brim with emotion, amazing metaphors, looks quite formidable things from seemingly simple and trivial. Starting With such praise, because hard to find me another word that could fit on this kilkuzdaniowy admission. Mr. Nabokov bewitched me, quite unexpectedly, offering me a real feast readership. And though "the bite of life .." is the second part collection of short stories by Vladimir Nabokov, for me it was the first encounter with his work. And so enchanted, engulfed more than seven hundred pages in just a few days.
What a little worried and sad, the fact that it is impossible to remember each of the stories. In addition, reading them almost wholesale, unable to break away from them, I remained in the mind of a great mix of themes, characters and events. But there are stories that made the deepest impression, and that thanks to this I remember. On the cover of the book we read that the most valued by the writer were telling "Spring in Fialcie", "Vane Sisters" and "cloud, lake, castle", for the same critics and "Signals and symbols." Of these, only the "Signals and symbols" were in my eyes kind of distinction. This story is overflowing with a specific fear and tension that with each new element brings us to the tragic finale. Such tragic endings in his pronunciation is apparently in Nabokov's much more. But what unites many of these, as it might seem, the unfortunate history, the magic of open ends, leaving room for countless maneuvers that the final result depends on the reader. Because of my pessimistic conditions, personally, most of the endings przepełniało me strange and ambiguous sadness. However, I note that in many cases this was not the main idea of \u200b\u200bthe author.
topics that deal with Nabokov seems to be infinitely wide, multi-layered, constantly overlapping each other. Recurrent motif in the first of the stories is the life of Russian immigrants in Germany (which was the same writer), their relationships with other people, just everyday problems. Another topic is the one which could not be ignored, namely the theme of love, both fulfilled and how the tragic, miserable, marked by both longing and betrayal. I also have historical references and descriptions of exotic travel, both those of the actual and quite abstract, occurring only in the mind of the hero. The theme that Nabokov presents a very subtly, in his literary manner and the overwhelming beauty, is about death and the afterlife. However, nothing is said simply, nothing is given to the reader right away. I regret the fact that much of the history just does not understand, failed to grasp what was most important to them. Some of the stories really are a tough nut to crack, nut to which may be repeated until the return would help to break the hard shell, and extraction of hidden underneath it meaning and significance. This sense of uncertainty, however, gives no sure way to explain, the extraordinary stories of Nabokov's magic.
What is the most excited as you read, this beautifully published book, incidentally, is above all imagination, and it is a capital W. I do not know as possible, but quite prosaic steps describe what is even crossing the threshold of the door, in the eyes of Nabokov, but rather in the paper reflected their view, grows to a function, which can devote an entire page. Importantly, however, does not zanudzając, on the contrary, drawing a description of the meanders and used this opportunity for comparison and reference. Sentences, which uses a writer, do not end with only two lines, sometimes stretching for nearly half a page without losing the consistency of and its intelligibility. Which seemed to able, the considerations that every object is decomposed into atomic parts, slowly, carefully and accurately transmitting images to the reader. Never before had put so much effort in trying to imagine all these different elements, have never been so much unable to steer his imagination. How to awake from hibernation almost, was revived and asked for more;)
My reading unless plans have changed again following the wave of fascination, which has set in motion Mr. Nabokov. I can not wait to book "Lolita" and "Ada or ardor," I just hope that the occasion of the reading, the aforementioned wave is not going to flood and drown my ecstasy;)
And at the end of a small fragment selected from multiple selected. Story
Fri "Mademoiselle O"
"Seen through these magic glasses garden became strangely still and far. If you looked through the dark blue glass, the sand turned into ashes and ink trees floated in the tropical sky. Yellow amber glass created a world awash with highly stretched tea sunlight. The red leaves dripped szybce ruby \u200b\u200bgloom over coral path. Green nasączała green even greener greenery. And when such a wealth of experience drew up on the box looked normal, taste-free glass, with a lone mosquito flies, or lame, it was like a gulp of water when there is a desire - you could see how kind the white bench in a well-known trees. But it is precisely through this glass window in the later years wanted to look at the heat exhausted nostalgia. "
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