Ok, we’ll, I haven’t finished this completely but the only way to make notes here is to mark it as read.

“The truth is that great novels are great fairy tales - and the novels in this series are supreme fairy tales.”

My favorite quote from Nabokov is “Curiously enough one cannot read a book; one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader.” I am beginning to better understand this in relation to literature (as opposed to fiction).

So I’d started this book 4 years ago when I read Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. (I think I bought Nabokov’s lectures nearly forty years ago with plans to read it leisurely when I had time…which took until I retired). Nabokov’s analysis impressed me when it dug into the physical layout of the house and diagramed it.

Then last year I finally read Joyce’s Ulysses. And loved Nabokov’s lecture on it. And I agree with him as to the man in the brown Macintosh.

I need to reread his essays on both these works.

And now I’ve just finished Austen’s Mansfield Park. Again, Nabokov diagrams the physical space, the geography. I find that a curious but interesting/ refreshing approach. I like how he examines Austen’s social critiques (the dimpled sentence; the epigrammatic intonation). I like how he examines the speech patterns of characters and what it reveals about them. And he notes that Austen doesn’t spend much on describing scenery but rather reveals through dialogue. Though he notes in the description of the Price house, Fanny’s childhood house, how it would have been described as Dickensian if Dickens had written before Austen. I like how he perceives the book as being a play itself, not just a novel. And I like how he picks up on Austen’s use of what we would call today Fanny’s stream of consciousness.

So on to read Dickens, Flaubert and Proust. And the Russian writers for Nabokov’s other volume ( )

If you ever wanted to know what a scholar who can write with depth and immediacy about masterpieces has to say, this is the one. Sip or gulp, this book can be read in minute segments or holus bolus and much can be gained. Worth it. ( )

At first I was wary of this book, being a former grad student and current exile from the literary academy with no interest in rejoining those stale debates. But what a breath of fresh air it proved to be. Nabokov was, not surprisingly, a keen reader, and he brings all his technical prowess to bear on works from Dickens, Austen, Flaubert, and others. He has the gift of entering a work on its own terms and bringing it to life, not deadening it with some inane theory. I read these lectures alongside the books they describe, and I found them delightfully illuminating. ( )

A good book that makes a case for his author rather than ideological literary thesis. ( )

Mais interessante do que ler as aulas do Nabokov sobre clássicos da literatura mundial é perceber a sua aristocrática, fantástica concepção de arte.
Logo no prefácio, Good Readers and Good Writers, ele diz que um bom leitor deve ter imaginação, memória, senso artístico e um dicionário. E enumera os erros que as pessoas cometem quando tentam pensar em um bom leitor: elas acham que eles devem pertencer a um clube do livro, identificar-se com o herói ou heroína, ter visto o filme, devem ter um ângulo socio-econômico, preferir um livro com ação e diálogos.
Depois, em seis aulas sobre livros de Jane Austen, Dickens, Flaubert, Stevenson, Proust, Kafka e James Joyce, ele reafirma sua convicções e a imagem de leitor apaixonado e detalhista. Tudo isso na tentativa de explicar como ocorre aquele Tell-tale tingle. ( )

Nabokov is just plain fun to read. ( )

Structure! Style! Themes! As the earlier reviewer wrote, Mr. Nabakov has no interest in any ideological/socio-political readings of any novel. And he only has time for the *great* works. He does remind me, however, how far from the text we often go in literary studies. He sees a novel as a completed jigsaw puzzle and his joy lies in taking out the individual pieces and then reconstructing the puzzle. And joy he has, and much to teach us, I think. Plus his own use of language is delicious. ( )

Excellent and brilliantly witty and dry series of lecture courses on literature from the master, Vladimir Nabokov. In this volume, Nabokov fights against all interpretive lenses, he denounces the sociological, political, and autobiographical perspectives on literature, arguing that a true reader should pay attention to the detail of the author's narrative, to the artistry and creativity, and not get drawn into banal generalizations. He writes that "the novels in this series are supreme fairy tales" (pg. 2).

According to Nabokov, good reader should:

1. Have an imagination
2. Have a memory
3. Have a dictionary
4. Have some artistic sense

In this volume, Nabokov lectures on a wide variety of great literature, including Jane Austin's `Mansfield Park,' Charles Dickens' `Bleak House,' `Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (an unusual choice at the time), `Madame Bovary' by Flaubert, Proust's great `a la recherché,' `the Metamorphosis,' by Kafka, `Ulysses,' by Joyce, and an excellent essay called `The Art of Literature and Commensense.'

This volume is filled with pleasurable surprises, especially the marvelous facsimiles of Nabokov's lecture preparations with complete annotations, and many wonderful diagrams and illustrations of the works analyzed. He has some great drawings of Gregor Samsa the beetle, and the floor-map of his apartment. It really helps the reader appreciate the work unlike the bulk of literary criticism, which seeks to mystify and empower the interpreter. This is a true appreciation of the novel form, and a classic of lit criticism from one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. His depth and breadth of understanding and attention to detail will astound you. ( )

on my skimmed shelf, but that's not exactly right. I read the Kafka & Joyce sections and didn't read the rest. ( )