Transparent things

by Vladimir Nabokov

1972 · 110 pages

widowers
publishers and publishing
fiction in english
roman
psychological
american literature

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About this book

The darkly comic Transparent Things, one of Nabokov's final books, traces the bleak life of Hugh Person through murder, madness, prison and trips to Switzerland. One of these was the last journey his father ever took; on another, having been sent to ingratiate himself with a distinguished novelist, he met his future wife.

"As casual, as unpredictable, as eccentric and as daunting as Mr. Nabokov's genius." -Mavis Gallant, The New York Times Book Review

Nabokov's brilliant short novel sinks into the transparent things of the world that surround this one person, to the silent histories they carry. Remarkable even in Nabokov's work for its depth and lyricism, Transparent Things is a small, experimental marvel of memories and dreams, both sentimental and malign.

“The final effect is both chill and comic, the transparencies both beautiful and terrifying.” —The Times (London)

Quotes by Vladimir Nabokov

From Wikiquote

And there are things that are hard to talk about—you'll rub off their marvelous pollen at the touch of a word.
What is this jest in majesty? This ass in passion? How do God and Devil combine to form a live dog?
Commonsense has trampled down many a gentle genius whose eyes had delighted in a premature moonbeam of some rarer truth; commonsense has back-kicked dirt at the loveliest of queer paintings because a blue tree seemed madness to its well-meaning hoof.