Vladimir Nabokov Quote
Ever since the days when such formidable mediocrities as Galsworthy, Dreiser, Tagore, Maxim Gorky, Romain Rolland and Thomas Mann were being accepted as geniuses, I have been perplexed and amused by fabricated notions about so-called great books. That, for instance, Mann's asinine Death in Venice, or Pasternak's melodramatic, vilely written Dr. Zhivago, or Faulkner's corn-cobby chronicles can be considered masterpieces or at least what journalists term great books, is to me the sort of absurd delusion as when a hypnotized person makes love to a chair. My greatest masterpieces of twentieth century prose are, in this order: Joyce's Ulysses; Kafka's Transformation; Bely's St. Petersburg, and the first half of Proust's fairy tale, In Search of Lost Time.
Ever since the days when such formidable mediocrities as Galsworthy, Dreiser, Tagore, Maxim Gorky, Romain Rolland and Thomas Mann were being accepted as geniuses, I have been perplexed and amused by fabricated notions about so-called great books. That, for instance, Mann's asinine Death in Venice, or Pasternak's melodramatic, vilely written Dr. Zhivago, or Faulkner's corn-cobby chronicles can be considered masterpieces or at least what journalists term great books, is to me the sort of absurd delusion as when a hypnotized person makes love to a chair. My greatest masterpieces of twentieth century prose are, in this order: Joyce's Ulysses; Kafka's Transformation; Bely's St. Petersburg, and the first half of Proust's fairy tale, In Search of Lost Time.
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About Vladimir Nabokov
From 1948 to 1959, Nabokov was a professor of Russian literature at Cornell University. His 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 works of 20th-century literature. Nabokov's Pale Fire, published in 1962, ranked 53rd on the same list. His memoir, Speak, Memory, published in 1951, is considered among the greatest nonfiction works of the 20th century, placing eighth on Random House's ranking of 20th-century works. Nabokov was a seven-time finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction. He also was an expert lepidopterist and composer of chess problems.