Despair

By Vladimir Nabokov

The wickedly inventive and richly derisive story of Hermann, a man who undertakes the perfect crime--his own murder. • “A beautiful mystery plot, not to be revealed.” – Newsweek

“Nabokov writes prose the only way it should be written, that is, ecstatically.” – John Updike

“One of Mr. Nabokov’s finest, most challenging and provocative novels.” – The New York Times

Despair’s protagonist, Hermann, is another masterly portrait in the fascinating gallery of living characters Vladmir Nabokov has given to world literature. In his pseudo wordliness, his odd genius, Hermann is one with such other heteroclitic neurotic Nabokovian creations as Humbert Humbert and Charles Kimbote. Rapt in his own reality, incapable of escaping or explicating it, he is as solitary in his abyss as Luzhin or Charlotte Haze of Lolita.

Despair is illuminated throughout by the virtuosity and cunning wit that are Vladimir Nabokov’s hallmarks.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Feb 16, 2011
• ISBN: 9780307787668

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 Despair

[lydia1879 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Oh, this book.

Nabokov is a master of his prose.

I won't say that I enjoyed this more than Lolita, but I will say that it's darker.

Despair has a lot more gallows humour, it has a touch of bitter satire about it. It's short, it's sweet, and it was so readable for me.

Nabokov introduces our narrator - a murder who considers himself to be an artist. I really like unreliable or 'unlikeable' narrators as a medium and Nabokov executes this perfectly.

The whole novel is littered with sarcasm and wonderful wit and a self-awareness that I think would be very difficult to reproduce.

Though it wasn't quite as poetic as Lolita, I still absolutely adored it, and think the world of Nabokov.

If you've read Nabokov before and adore him like I do, or if you haven't, Despair is a great book.

[jjmann3-873368 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Despair is the story of Hermann Karlovich, a man stuck in a lousy job and even lousier marriage, looking for a way out. Like many a modern day man, loneliness pervades Hermann's existence: all his relationships are superficial at best and involve money. He comes across a vagabond who looks like him and is struck by an idea -- how about killing the lookalike and switching places with him?Of course, things don't go quite according to plan.Few authors yield the power of the word better than Nabokov and readers looking for something truly well put together will not be disappointed. While not a breezy read, Despair is a short book and I recommend for anyone looking for sincere contemplation.

[marse_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is Nabokov's Dostoevskian novel, albeit only in the choice of topic -- his language and style is completely unDostoevsky-like. This is not surprising given Nabokov's disdain for Dostoevsky as a writer. The narrator makes jabs at "Dusty" often, refers to "The Double" and "Crime and Punishment" openly and with a kind of sneer. In brief, the narrator has met his double in the person of a vagabond, starts a relationship with this person, then plans a nefarious crime, it seems, for the sake of writing about it. Because this narrator is, like Nabokov, a well-educated, elegant, Russian emigre and not the harassed petty clerk of Dostoevsky's tale, he is very concerned with the mechanics of writing the story. The first chapters often bring up literary problems, like which events should he speak of first, details of place, how things should be introduced and he comes back to the issue of writing, especially at the end. Leave it to Nabokov to tell Dostoevsky how to write. It is an interesting piece -- Nabokov's first novel, reworked 30 or so years later --with a wonderful, but not unexpected, little twist near the end. Nevertheless, what's missing from "Despair" is the essence of a Dostoevsky novel: the angst and frisson, inelegant, hysterical and so compelling.

[dbsovereign · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A nightmare of a novel that takes us into the mind of another "unreliable narrator." Like many of Nabokov's novels we can never be sure of what we know since it's based on what the narrator tells us - much of which is questionable. What starts out as the seemingly perfect murder becomes the perfect stage for madness. Is it "real" or is it Nabokov?

[stravinsky-544320 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The last paragraph would add half a star to my rating.

[paul_s-289480 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed the playful style the book is narrated in. The plot is weak, but it's a farce so it's not the point. Very Russian, which made sense when I learned that it was written in Russian first and then translated by the author.

[big_bang_gorilla · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In which a self-proclaimed mastermind decides that his discovery of his lookalike is his ticket to pulling off a great criminal enterprise. Hermann Karlovich is one of my favorites of Nabokov's unreliable narrators, and it's great fun sharing his elaborate schemes, dreams, and dismissals of the capacities of all and sundry individuals who might get in his way. Nabokov's language throughout is, no surprise, achingly beautiful.

[hadriantheblind · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of Nabokov's first forays into English fiction. Many of his favorite tricks are here - literary allusions, intricate and dazzling prose, false identities, unreliable narrators. Pure Nabokov - nothing wrong with that at all.

[saraprindiville · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The title describes it perfectly. Such good writing! I wish it wasn't so sad though. I got to about the middle before I realized that something bad was going to happen. Very quick read.

[wirkman_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My favorite novel by this writer, excepting, of course, the great "Lolita." It is droll, another tale told by an unreliable narrator. The ending ismore than droll, it is hysterically funny, and I'm told the film of it was, also, perfect and witty.

[karlus_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have just finished readng Despair by Vladimir Nabokov, my 15th novel in a row by him /egad/, and the first that has truly disappointed me. Hermann is a chocolate manufacturer who is none too successful as a businessman. One day, an amazing coincidence puts him in mind that, of all things, he can commit the perfect murder, and of himself no less. Not suicide, but murder! Unfortunately, this Nabokovian conceit of a plot idea is insufficient to sustain Hermann's crashingly long and boring first-person rendition of his detailed planning and execution (no pun) of his scheme. Worse yet, he is writing it all down in a dreadful book-within-the-book and he shares his superficial writing agonies and indecisions with us also. How shall he write the story? Hermann eventually reaches a point of despair, long after this reader came to have the same feeling.It turns out that I am actually re-reading the book. Oick? I can't help wondering if I missed a crucial turn somewhere that permitted Nabokov to pull off a Perfect Deception and completely turn the tables on me. As it is, it is a disappointing book and, because of its structure -- being written by Hermann -- one has to put the blame on Hermann, the putative author. It may be that it is Nabokov who has finally committed the perfect crime here!Read it if you are interested in the development of Nabokov's writing style. Otherwise pick a real detective story!