"Spring in Fialta" is a

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 ...

written by

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. Bor ...

in 1936, originally as ''Весна в Фиальте (Vesna v Fial'te)'' in Russian, during his exile in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. The English translation was performed by Nabokov and Peter Pertzov. ''Spring in Fialta'' is included in Nine Stories and

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 N ...

Synopsis

Victor, the narrator, serendipitously encounters Nina, a fellow exile, at Fialta, a fictional

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 Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

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 encounters. He also expresses deprecatory and possibly jealous views of Ferdinand, with whom he is nominally friends but secretly views as an “arrogant” Franco-Hungarian writer and a “weaver of words”. At the end of their meeting, Victor declines to join Nina and her husband on a car ride. His last words to her are a suggestion that he may love her, immediately after which he says he is "only joking". Later, he learns they have been involved in a car crash in which Ferdinand, the "invulnerable rogue", escapes with minor injury, but in which Nina perishes.

Comments

The story incorporates many of Nabokov’s themes and techniques that are present in later novels: recreating events by memory, the issue of reality, relationship to women, the sense of loss, recalling

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, the relationship to the double, the

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 unr ...

, and a non-chronological narrative. It has been argued that both the narrator and Nina’s husband, Ferdinand, bear some resemblance to Nabokov.Field, Andrew. VN The Life and Art of Vladimir Nabokov. Crown Publishers, New York (1986) While the plot was invented, the story may be a "tangential record" of an extramarital affair that Nabokov may have engaged in. Nabokov's attempts to publish the manuscript in English in the United States met with initial disappointment, and he referred to it as a "boomerang variety of manuscript".

Critical reception

The story was ranked by ''

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 ...

'' as the second greatest short story by Nabokov, after “

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 st ...

”.

References

External links

Spring in Fialta (text)

Nabokov's 1964 interview with Playboy

Shmoop Study Guide
{{Vladimir Nabokov Short stories by Vladimir Nabokov 1936 short stories Fiction with unreliable narrators Nonlinear narrative literature