Description
A young Russian writer’s life unfolds in luminous, self-aware chapters of love, ambition, and artistic apprenticeship, as he moves from idle self-indulgence toward the disciplined, mesmerizing attention that makes literature feel like discovery. Along the way, romance with Zina and the pull of Russian literary tradition shape his “sentimental education,” while a brilliant, butterfly-hunting father—part entomologist, part artist—offers a vision of nature as a creator of its own intricate art. With Nabokov’s signature precision and playfulness, the novel becomes both a coming-of-age story and a dazzling meditation on how style, memory, and observation transform experience into meaning. Rich with émigré life and threaded with debates about writers and books, it celebrates the gift of seeing—whether in human hearts or in the winged patterns of the natural world.
Available Editions
paperback
Penguin Books Ltd
Published Apr 5, 2001
368 pages
ISBN: 9780141185873
Reviews
No ratings yet. Be the first!
No written reviews yet.
Details
First Published
1937
Language
eng
Content Warnings
Content and trigger warnings for The Gift by Vladimir Nabokov.