The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov

From the writer who shocked and delighted the world with his novels Lolita, Pale Fire, and Ada, or Ardor, and so many others, comes a magnificent collection of stories. Written between the 1920s and 1950s, these sixty-five tales--eleven of which have been translated into English for the first time--display all the shades of Nabokov's imagination. They range from sprightly fables to bittersweet tales of loss, from claustrophobic exercises in horror to a connoisseur's samplings of the table of human folly. Read as a whole, The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov offers and intoxicating draft of the master's genius, his devious wit, and his ability to turn language into an instrument of ecstasy.The wood-sprite --Russian spoken here --Sounds --Wingstroke --Gods --A matter of chance --The seaport --Revenge --Beneficence --Details of a sunset --The thunderstorm --La veneziana --Bachmann --The dragon --Christmas --A letter that never reached Russia --The fight --The return of Chorb --A guide to Berlin --A nursery tale --Terror --Razor --The passenger --The doorbell --An affair of honor --The Christmas story --The potato elf --The aurelian --A dashing fellow --A bad day --The visit to the museum --A busy man --Terra incognita --The reunion --Lips to lips --Orache --Music --Perfection --The admiralty spire --The Leonardo --In memory of L.I. Shigaev --The circle --A Russian beauty --Breaking the news --Torpid smoke --Recruiting --A slice of life --Spring in Fialta --Cloud, castle, lake --Tyrants destroyed --Lik --Mademoiselle O --Vasiliy Shishkov --Ultima Thule --Solus Rex --The assistant producer --That in aleppo once --A forgotten poet --Time and ebb --Conversation piece, 1945 --Signs and symbols --First love --Scenes from the life of a double monster --The Vane sisters --Lance.