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Spring In Fialta
"Spring in Fialta" is a short story written by Vladimir Nabokov in 1936, originally as ''Весна в Фиальте (Vesna v Fial'te)'' in Russian, during his exile in Berlin. The English translation was performed by Nabokov and Peter Pertzov. ''Spring in Fialta'' is included in Nine Stories and Nabokov's Dozen. Synopsis Victor, the narrator, serendipitously encounters Nina, a fellow exile, at Fialta, a fictional Mediterranean town. Both are married and have met and flirted on several occasions over the years since their first kiss in Russia, “at the margins of islife”. Nina is attractive, seemingly aloof, and ephemeral. Victor, on the other hand, though still feeling deep affection for her, lacks the conviction of true love. He has remained faithful in his own marriage, while she has had multiple affairs that have gone ignored by her husband, Ferdinand, beyond his using them for business connections. The story drifts between past and present, as Victor recalls past encoun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Short Story
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest types of literature and has existed in the form of legends, mythic tales, folk tales, fairy tales, tall tales, fables and anecdotes in various ancient communities around the world. The modern short story developed in the early 19th century. Definition The short story is a crafted form in its own right. Short stories make use of plot, resonance, and other dynamic components as in a novel, but typically to a lesser degree. While the short story is largely distinct from the novel or novella/short novel, authors generally draw from a common pool of literary techniques. The short story is sometimes referred to as a genre. Determining what exactly defines a short story has been recurrently problematic. A classic definition of a short story ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian (1926–1938) while living in Berlin, where he met his wife. He achieved international acclaim and prominence after moving to the United States, where he began writing in English. Nabokov became an American citizen in 1945 and lived mostly on the East Coast before returning to Europe in 1961, where he settled in Montreux, Switzerland. From 1948 to 1959, Nabokov was a professor of Russian literature at Cornell University. Nabokov's 1955 novel '' Lolita'' ranked fourth on Modern Library's list of the 100 best 20th-century novels in 2007 and is considered one of the greatest 20th-century works of literature. Nabokov's ''Pale Fire'', published in 1962, was ranked ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constituent states, Berlin is surrounded by the State of Brandenburg and contiguous with Potsdam, Brandenburg's capital. Berlin's urban area, which has a population of around 4.5 million, is the second most populous urban area in Germany after the Ruhr. The Berlin-Brandenburg capital region has around 6.2 million inhabitants and is Germany's third-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr and Rhine-Main regions. Berlin straddles the banks of the Spree, which flows into the Havel (a tributary of the Elbe) in the western borough of Spandau. Among the city's main topographical features are the many lakes in the western and southeastern boroughs formed by the Spree, Havel and Dahme, the largest of which is Lake Müggelsee. Due to its l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nine Stories (Nabokov)
''Nine Stories'' is an English-language collection of stories written in Russian, French, and English by Vladimir Nabokov. It was published in 1947 by New Directions in New York City, as the second issue of a serial, ''Direction''. The nine stories are: * "''The Aurelian''" (a translation by Nabokov and Peter Pertzov of "Pil'gram") * "''Cloud, Castle, Lake''" (a translation by Nabokov and Peter Pertzov of "Oblako, ozero, bashnia") * "''Spring in Fialta''" (a translation by Nabokov and Peter Pertzov of "Vesna v Fialte") * "''Mademoiselle O "Mademoiselle O" is a memoir by Vladimir Nabokov about his eccentric Swiss-French governess. Publication history It was first written and published in French in '' Mesures'' (vol. 2, no. 2, 1936) and subsequently in English (translated b ...''" (a translation by VN with Hilda Ward from the French) * "''A Forgotten Poet''" * "''The Assistant Producer''" * "''That in Aleppo Once...''" * "''Time and Ebb''" * "Double Talk" (retitled " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nabokov's Dozen
''Nabokov's Dozen'' (1958) a collection of 13 short stories by Vladimir Nabokov previously published in American magazines. (Nine of them also previously appeared in '' Nine Stories''.) All were later reprinted within ''The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov''. Two stories, ''First Love'' (as ''Colette'') and ''Mademoiselle O'' are also included in Nabokov's ''Speak, Memory''. Contents *"Spring in Fialta" *"A Forgotten Poet" *"First Love" *"Signs and Symbols" *"The Assistant Producer" *"The Aurelian" *"Cloud, Castle, Lake" *"Conversation Piece, 1945" *" That in Aleppo Once..." *"Time and Ebb" *"Scenes from the Life of a Double Monster" *"Mademoiselle O "Mademoiselle O" is a memoir by Vladimir Nabokov about his eccentric Swiss-French governess. Publication history It was first written and published in French in '' Mesures'' (vol. 2, no. 2, 1936) and subsequently in English (translated b ..." *"Lance" 1958 short story collections Short story collections by Vladimir Nabok ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White émigré
White Russian émigrés were Russians who emigrated from the territory of the former Russian Empire in the wake of the Russian Revolution (1917) and Russian Civil War (1917–1923), and who were in opposition to the revolutionary Bolshevik communist Russian political climate. Many white Russian émigrés participated in the White movement or supported it, although the term is often broadly applied to anyone who may have left the country due to the change in regimes. Some white Russian émigrés, like Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, were opposed to the Bolsheviks but had not directly supported the White Russian movement; some were apolitical. The term is also applied to the descendants of those who left and who still retain a Russian Orthodox Christian identity while living abroad. The term "émigré" is most commonly used in France, the United States, and the United Kingdom. A term preferred by the émigrés themselves was first-wave émigré (russian: link= no, эми ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The Sea has played a central role in the history of Western civilization. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago, the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years during the Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago. The Mediterranean Sea covers an area of about , representing 0.7% of the global ocean surface, but its connection to the Atlantic via the Strait of Gibraltar—the narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates the Iberian Peninsula in Europe from Morocco in Africa—is only wide. The Mediterranean Sea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eighth of Earth's inhabitable landmass. Russia extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones and shares Borders of Russia, land boundaries with fourteen countries, more than List of countries and territories by land borders, any other country but China. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, world's ninth-most populous country and List of European countries by population, Europe's most populous country, with a population of 146 million people. The country's capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city is Moscow, the List of European cities by population within city limits, largest city entirely within E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unreliable Narrator
An unreliable narrator is a narrator whose credibility is compromised. They can be found in fiction and film, and range from children to mature characters. The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C. Booth in ''The Rhetoric of Fiction''. While unreliable narrators are almost by definition first-person narrators, arguments have been made for the existence of unreliable second- and third-person narrators, especially within the context of film and television, and sometimes also in literature. Sometimes the narrator's unreliability is made immediately evident. For instance, a story may open with the narrator making a plainly false or delusional claim or admitting to being severely mentally ill, or the story itself may have a frame in which the narrator appears as a character, with clues to the character's unreliability. A more dramatic use of the device delays the revelation until near the story's end. In some cases, the reader discovers that in the foregoing narrative, the narrator h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stacy Schiff
Stacy Madeleine Schiff (born October 26, 1961) is an American former editor, essayist, and author of five biographies. Her biography of Vera Nabokov won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in biography. Schiff has also written biographies of French aviator and author of ''The Little Prince'', Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, colonial American-era polymath and prime mover of America's founding, Benjamin Franklin, Franklin's fellow Founding Father Samuel Adams, ancient Egyptian queen Cleopatra, and the important figures and events of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692–93 in colonial Massachusetts. Early life and career Schiff was born in Adams, Massachusetts, to Morton Schiff, the president of Schiff Clothing, a store founded by Schiff's great-grandfather in 1897, and Ellen, a professor of French literature at North Adams State college (now called Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts). Schiff graduated from Phillips Academy (Andover) preparatory school, and subsequently earned her B.A. degree fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of Book Publishing and Bookselling". With 51 issues a year, the emphasis today is on book reviews. The magazine was founded by bibliographer Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ... Frederick Leypoldt in the late 1860s, and had various titles until Leypoldt settled on the name ''The Publishers' Weekly'' (with an apostrophe) in 1872. The publication was a compilation of information about newly published books, collected from publishers and from other sources by Leypoldt, for an audience of booksellers. By 1876, ''The Publishers' Weekly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Signs And Symbols
"Signs and Symbols" is a short story by Vladimir Nabokov, written in English and first published, May 15, 1948 in ''The New Yorker'' and then in ''Nabokov's Dozen'' (1958: Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York). In ''The New Yorker'', the story was published under the title "Symbols and Signs", a decision by the editor Katharine White. Nabokov returned the title to his original "Signs and Symbols" when republishing the story. Plot summary An elderly couple tries to visit their mentally ill son in a sanatorium on his birthday. They are informed that he attempted to take his life and they cannot see him now. After their return home, the husband announces his decision to take him out of the sanatorium. The story concludes with mysterious telephone calls. The first two apparently misdialed calls are from a girl asking for "Charlie"; the story ends when the phone rings for the third time. In the course of the story the reader learns many details of the unnamed couple's life: the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
