The Gift

Written by Vladimir Nabokov

Narrated by Stefan Rudnicki

The Gift is the last of the novels Nabokov wrote in his native Russian and the crowning achievement of that period in his literary career.It is also his ode to Russian literature, evoking the works of Pushkin, Gogol, and others in the course of its narrative:the story of Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, an impoverished émigré poet living in Berlin, who dreams of the book he will someday write—a book very much like The Gift itself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: May 20, 2011
• ISBN: 9781441873323

Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov (San Petersburgo, 1899-Montreux, 1977), uno de los más extraordinarios escritores del siglo XX, nació en el seno de una acomodada familia aristocrática. En 1919, a consecuencia de la Revolución Rusa, abandonó su país para siempre. Tras estudiar en Cambridge, se instaló en Berlín, donde empezó a publicar sus novelas en ruso con el seudónimo de V. Sirin. En 1937 se trasladó a París, y en 1940 a los Estados Unidos, donde fue profesor de literatura en varias universidades. En 1960, gracias al gran éxito comercial de Lolita, pudo abandonar la docencia, y poco después se trasladó a Montreux, donde residió, junto con su esposa Véra, hasta su muerte. En Anagrama se le ha dedicado una «Biblioteca Nabokov» que recoge una amplísima muestra de su talento narrativo. En «Compactos» se han publicado los siguientes títulos: Mashenka, Rey, Dama, Valet, La defensa, El ojo, Risa en la oscuridad, Desesperación, El hechicero, La verdadera vida de Sebastian Knight, Lolita, Pnin, Pálido fuego, Habla, memoria, Ada o el ardor, Invitado a una decapitación y Barra siniestra; La dádiva, Cosas transparentes, Una belleza rusa, El original de Laura y Gloria pueden encontrarse en «Panorama de narrativas», mientras que sus Cuentos completos están incluidos en la colección «Compendium». Opiniones contundentes, por su parte, ha aparecido en «Argumentos».

Reviews for The Gift

[chellerystick · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Gift, Nabokov's last novel written in Russian (in the 1930's), translated into English in 1963, is another lovely example of Nabokov's eye for detail, as well as his deft use of sound. Although Nabokov likes to write about people who are perhaps not normal, he does so with such clarity that one sympathizes even with the obsessed, the bigoted, and the self-centered, even while disliking them. The main character tutors someone in the English language, while the author manipulates the metaphor of communication as message-passing:"The bus rolled on--and presently he arrived at his destination--the place of a lone and lonesome young woman, very attractive in spite of her freckles, always wearing a black dress opened at the neck and with lips like sealing-wax on a letter in which there was nothing. She continually looked at Fyodor with pensive curiosity, not only taking no interest int he remarkable novel by Stevenson which he had been reading with her for the past three months (and before that they had read Kipling at the same rate), but also not understanding a single sentence, and noting down words as you would note down the address of someone you knew you would never visit."The book touches also on nature, romance, poetics, and, in chapter 4, a kind of modernist half-biography that is meant to be more true than the truth. The book does not have a fast-paced plot, but rather lovingly builds up the details of surprisingly quiet lives in unquiet times. Thus, instead of being a page-turner, it is a book to take your time over.Highly recommended.

[laura1124-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was brilliant, funny, and magical. I was lost in chapter 4 and had to look up Chernyshevski but still most went over my head because I'm not familiar enough with Russian history and literature. The second chapter - Fyodore's imaginings of his fathers travels through Asia were fantastic and the last chapter's twist of fate was a perfect ending. I did not remove the half star because of my failings - it just doesn't compare with Lolita or Pale Fire.

[marse_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Looking at the cover of the Popular Library (1963) paperback edition of "The Gift" by Vladimir Nabokov, it is difficult to imagine how that cover came to be, in fact it is difficult to imagine that this book could be considered a 'popular'--in the sense of appreciated by the general population--book. The front cover is reminiscent of a "From Here to Eternity" romance, and the quotes on the book are nothing if not cryptic: "a bizarre and special romp", "a powerful kick", "an occasion of delight". What is this book about? If I had to sum it up, I would say it is about creativity, nostalgia, writing. Is this book worth reading? Absolutely! Is it accessible? I can only tell you my experience. More than 30 years ago I was beginning graduate school in Slavic literature and languages. Before flying to Poland for a summer school program, I spent a few days at a high school friend's garret in New York City. She was renting a room on the top floor of a 6 floor walkup which in actuality was an attic with a working bathtub in the middle of the room (she shared a toilet down the hall with the rest of the tenants on that floor). On one side of the attic were piles and piles of paperback books which the owner of the attic (a writer of some sort) stored there. These books looked like they hadn't been touched in decades, and among them I found this very edition of "the Gift". Thinking I would read it during my stay in Poland, and return it on my way homeward, I filched it from the attic. Throughout that summer I would read snatches of it whenever I had a few free moments. I don't remember whether I finished the novel or not, I just remember not being able to recall anything that happened or anything about the main character--even as I was reading it. A few weeks ago I glimpsed this same edition in the Library resale book store and it called to me. Oh what a difference 30 years make! What I realize now is that, first of all, this is a novel that demands attention and leisure--no quick sips every now and again, no! it needs to be savored with no interruptions for a minimum of a couple hours at a time. Secondly, I was a complete ignoramus back then--I thought I knew Russian literature and culture, but in actuality I had just barely brushed the surface, and this novel is front and foremost a love poem to and about Russian literary culture as well as a critique of some of Russia's most beloved cultural figures. The main character is a Russian emigre poet/writer living in Berlin during the 20s. He lives among the squalor and pettiness of the Russian literary refugees. He writes about the lost world of his childhood, he writes about his father--an explorer and searcher of butterflies who never returned from his last expedition, and in a chapter that was excised until the 1950s edition, he writes a biography/evisceration of the literary and social critic/martyr Nikolai Chernyshevsky. In a strange twist of life imitating art, the Russian emigre publishing world was outraged by this biography, as were the emigres in the novel itself. Why was this chapter left out of the original Russian version? Was it salacious? Was it obscene? It was because Nabokov depicted an icon of Russian 19th century social/progressive thought as an untalented, awkward, and frankly, ridiculous figure. I didn't even mention the language, his analysis of various authors' styles, use of poetic meter, even particular words. Oh there is a love story too. The writer falls for a girl in the boarding house where he lives, and this story is the novel that will come into being as you read the book. If ever a book needed an annotated edition, then this is the one...and it turns out someone has done just that. I found "Keys to the Gift" through interlibrary loan. I can't wait to discover what I've missed.

[karlus_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Is it possible to be bored with a novel, and yet be fascinated by it? Or perhaps, contrariwise, to have a fascination that verges on boredom? This novel may have it! At least for me.The Gift has passages of exquiste beauty decribing butterfly hunting in far-off central Asia, for example, including a dream of a butterfly-covered landscape of unsurpassed brilliance and fantasy. It has wonderful scenes -- regrettably far, far too few -- where Fyodor gets to know and love Zina, in whose alert intelligence we can easily recognize the appealing earmarks of Vera, Nabokov's own true real-life and enduring love.But, at root, it is the story of Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, an unknown, unrecognized, undistinguished, down-and-out, would-be author with an obsessive desire to make his literary mark in the world. We read the details of Fyodor's day-to-day struggles with his mundane life, and with his inner literary demon, in an ordinary world that is vividly and meticulously described as only Nabokov can describe it. We read of Fyodor obsessed with developing a writing technique, compiling lists of adjectives, analyzing the metrics of rhyming in Russian poetry, and finally trying to figure out just how to research and organize the details for the biography he has chosen to write of a historically-famous author and critic.And that is where Nabokov, and Fyodor, begin to lose me.The novel was written mainly in 1935-37 in Berlin, where an emigre audience would still have fresh memories of pre-revolutionary social and literary hardships under the Tsars in late nineteenth century Russia. I am sure the novel would have greater resonance and meaning with its emigree audience then, than it does with my exceedingly slender knowldge of that era now.Fyodor chooses to write the life story of Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevski, the real-life writer and critic, whose novel "What is to be Done?" was destined to be noticed and used by Lenin for his own revolutionary purpose. During the writing, an immense number of nineteenth-century Russian authors, from famous to obscure, receive Fyodor's critical appraisal as he does his research. Eventually Fyodor's demythologized and highly critical The Life of Chenryshevski is published and included in its entirety as a very long section in The Gift.Finally, Fyodor's inspiration in the closing pages of The Gift provides the key to seeing the hitherto disparate elements of the novel as an organic whole. One is then armed to reread the novel and gain its full enjoyment. But for me, that reread will have to be done with an encyclopedic social and literary history of Russia in my other hand. Only then will I be able to fully recognize the nuances and jibes that I can now only dimly see written into this mammoth novel on Nabokov's favorite topic. In Nabokov's own words, from the Introduction, the hero of the novel is Russian Literature.

[jorgeousjotts · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This really isn't my sort of setup, both leads just strike me as super childish. The woman is naive and out of her element and basically bungles things at nearly every turn. She's almost simple-minded really. I think it's supposed to be humorous and cute, all her misunderstandings, all her attempts to do things competently that spectacularly fail... the men in the story rail for a minute and then end up finding it incredibly adorable and endearing apparently. I don't really get it. She cries a lot, she's just not very interesting to me. And the hero always seems to be one sneeze away from a fit of anger. I feel like 80% of his dialogue was yelling, ordering, or criticizing... He's described as tall and strapping, but otherwise I don't get his appeal. He has the emotional intelligence of a fruit fly. I believe this is a popular HR, but the plot didn't wow me either. It just wasn't a good fit for me.

[mom2lnb · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I’ve been a fan of Julie Garwood now for over twenty-five years. She came recommended to me by my mother-in-law, who is also a romance fan, and she was one of the first mainstream historical romance authors I tried. I remember reading The Gift way back when I was discovering her work. It was probably one of the first Garwood books I tried, but all I really remembered about it is that I’d liked it and that there was some high-seas adventure in it. At the time I first read it, though, I didn’t realize it was the third book of a series, so I only more recently read the first two. The Gift, however, is my favorite of the Crown’s Spies series so far and quite possibly my favorite of this author’s books that I’ve read at this point, too. It’s about Nathan St. James and Sara Winchester, who were married as children, a command that was handed down by King George III, himself, as a way to bring peace between their families who’ve been at odds since the medieval era. Nathan was only fourteen at the time, and Sara was a mere four years old. Their wedding is shown in the prologue and their first meeting is adorably sweet with little Sara placing her full trust in Nathan even then. Since then, they’ve lived separate lives, but Sara has dreamed of the day that Nathan will come to whisk her away. Needing the money that fulfilling the marriage contract will eventually bring him, Nathan finally shows up fourteen years later, intending to collect his bride and do just that, but with no designs on falling in love. However, Sara confounds him at every turn with her sweet, generous spirit and annoys the hell out of him when she brings one calamity after another upon his ship. But soon, he can no longer imagine his life without her, even though the word “love” isn’t exactly in his vocabulary. This book was a delightful reread that turned out to be equal parts sweet, sexy, and LOL funny.Sara is a naive, idealistic dreamer who usually has her head in the clouds. She’s also a hopeless romantic who has built up the husband she hasn’t seen since their wedding day into the perfect fairy tale prince. When her uncle and his brothers try to have her beloved Aunt Nora, who is the black sheep of the family for marrying far beneath her station, committed to an asylum in order to steal her money, Sara writes, asking for Nathan’s help. What she doesn’t know, though, is that her missives went astray, so when he doesn’t come, she decides to take matters into her own hands. Sneaking out late at night, she walks the few blocks to her uncle’s town house where she believes Nora is being held captive and frees her, but little does she know that her husband coincidentally showed up anyway and protected her all along the way. When she goes to a tavern to confront her uncle and get Nora’s wedding ring back, then she finally meets her huge, handsome spouse, who once again saves her and takes her aboard his ship. At first, she’s a little afraid of him, but she gradually comes to realize that he’d never hurt her even though he frequently bellows at her for the wacky things that she does. Sara is one of the sweetest, most innocent and guileless heroines I believe I’ve ever read. She’s also a walking calamity who nearly destroys Nathan’s ship on more than one occasion, even driving his crew to wear garlic to ward off the bad luck she brings. But underneath it all, she has a genuinely good heart. She comes to deeply love and have absolute trust in Nathan pretty quickly, and once she does, she’s loyal to a fault, defending him even when he irritates her. She’s quite protective of those she loves and that comes to include Nathan. She’s extremely shy on their “wedding night,” but once sexually awakened, she becomes a very responsive lover and is quite demonstrative of her love in more ways than one.Nathan lost his parents at a young age and became responsible for his younger sister, Jade, who found her HEA in the previous book, Guardian Angel. Although a marquess, he’s spent most of the intervening years since marrying Sara as a pirate and spy for the crown. With the bounty on his pirate persona growing larger by the day, he decides it’s time to go straight and start a legitimate shipping company with his best friend, Colin. In order to build it up, though, he needs more money, but he lost much of what he owned when both of his homes fell victim to arson. The marriage contract includes a gift of land and gold after Nathan has spent one year living as husband and wife with Sara and producing an heir, so he decides to finally go claim her. Most of the Winchester women are plain and plump, and the clan in general are pretty ill-tempered, so he doesn’t expect much, leaving him pleasantly surprised to discover that Sara is quite comely and pretty sweet-tempered, if a bit stubborn. Even though she seems to cause one catastrophe after another that tries his patience, he knows that she isn’t doing it deliberately, and her frequent tears and heartfelt apologies make it impossible for him to stay mad at her for long. Although he doesn’t recognize his emotions as love, the kind and gentle way he always treats her and his growing inability to imagine life without her make his feelings abundantly clear even if it takes him a while to admit it both to himself and to her. Even though Nathan can play the growly alpha, he never annoyed me. I loved him to pieces and found him nearly as amusing as Sara.I can hardly express how much fun I had rereading The Gift. Even though I had vague recollections of enjoying it before, this revisit exceeded my expectations. I’m very particular about rom-coms, often finding them too shallow or not as humorous as they’re supposed to be, but this one tickled my funny bone just right. I think I spent the entire time I read it with a goofy grin on my face, if not outright laughing. It’s a little slap-sticky, but it totally worked for me. I can’t recall when I’ve read a more hilarious book. Yet, interspersed with all the fun and games was a sweet, tender love story that gave me all the feels that I expect in a romance. It was completely apparent from their adorable first meeting in the prologue that these two were star-crossed loves meant for each other. I love Sara’s complete faith and trust in Nathan even when he stubbornly refuses to tell her he loves her. Nathan may be a little rough around the edges, but he has a good heart, expressing his love in his own sweet way, through his kindness, gentleness, and protectiveness. I enjoyed the secondary romance between Nora and Matthew, one of Nathan’s seamen. There were plenty of other supporting characters to liven things up as well, including Caine and Jade (Guardian Angel) and Colin, who will become the hero of the next book, Castles. This series may have gotten off to a slow start for me, but after this charming and entertaining entry, I’m now looking forward to finishing it off soon, while hoping that Colin’s story will be equally as diverting as this one was.

[carol420 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Julie Garwood fans may be irritated by the whiny nature of this particular "heroine". Not as good as usual.

[madihatter · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book was one big bitter bottle of disappointment. It was Julie Garwood at its worst. The Lady lead was freaking irritating. I have read Garwood's other books and truthfully they are alot better than this.I felt like I could wring Sara's (the oh-so-sweet lead) neck half way through the book. Personally I wouldn't suggest it even as mediocre read.

[dearheart_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Third book in a regency series, we’d met Nathan in Caine and Jade’s story from Guardian Angel. It’s time for Nathan to go kidnap his bride—the baggage he’s got to accept in order to get the king’s gift of gold. He needs the money to grow his shipping business.In an attempt to stop a long standing feud between the Winchester and St James families, King George came up with a contract, forcing four year-old Sara Winchester to marry fourteen year-old Nathan St James. They’ll be awarded a valuable strip of land that resides between the estates of both families. And when she gives him a child, the king’s gift of gold. If either breaks the contract, the other family gets the land. The two haven’t seen each other since being wed fourteen years ago and her family desperately wants Nathan to break the contract.Chaotic humor abounds as naïve Sara is the cause of one mishap after another while aboard his ship, to the point where a sailor getting a wart also gets blamed on her. The two are as different as night and day. She’s a dreamer who grew up with the fairy tale belief that her husband loved her and should protect her from everything. That faith gets put to the test. For his part, he’s relieved that she’s nothing at all like her despicable family in either looks or temperament and both he and his crew come to appreciate her.I love the characters. First read back in the 90s before I’d started reading so much urban fantasy with capable, kick butt heroines, today Sara seems like a wet noodle in comparison. But she’s so charming and funny. Her backbone is obvious from the start, but we see growth in that area. Expect to shed tears in more than one place as it’s easy to slip into Sara’s head and feel her emotions.It’s not necessary to have read Guardian Angel first, but it would definitely help with a better understanding of some of the relationships as well as an issue that comes up. The characters and storyline from the first book, Lion’s Lady, have nothing to do with this third story.

[jaguar897 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a fun, fast read like most of Garwood's earlier novels. The heroine, Sara Winchester was comedic, innocent, and charming. Although I admit her crying and whining was a bit grating after awhile, hence the three stars. Nathan St. James was loveable, handsome, stubborn, and oh-so-yummy. There wasn't a whole of drama, but there were some really funny moments as Sara got use to ship life and Nathan got use to the fact that he can love. Overall, this was a good read.

[cathyleming · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I liked this story (high seas adventure) and loved this hero.