Despair

The book is genius like everything Nabokov writes, and the reading is brilliant!

A light shone into the corners of a sick, sad man. Frantic and funny the whole way through, but affectingly relevant to today's proliferated sort of narcissistic malaise. Everyone knows a Hermann. You might be one, or so might I!

I had to write a review to shout out the narration, the best I've heard yet. Perfectly in tune with the text and just charmingly energetic, really pushes you onward. Give it a listen!

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?

The reader, Christopher Lane, is brilliant. He dramatises the novel in a way that makes you realise how Nabokov's prose creates a sort of inner dialogue, a speech to one self, a common fact of inner life but not 'stream of consciousness at all', which is how Nabokov's writing can be so vivid, almost Shakespearean, at turns hilarious and acidic. The story pushes credibility a little but is always gripping.

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.

Readble, sure. It's also quite funny at times, and some of Nabokov's insights into humanity (via the lens of Hermann) are pretty interesting. The implied political nature of the work gives it something to chew on, too; on the whole, there's a surprising lot for a modern reader to enjoy. But, at all times, it just feels like a "minor" book, a B-movie type throwaway.

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.

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

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.

The protagonist is essentially a sketch of what would be Humbert Humbert in Lolita. He is the intelligent, charismatic, ironic, and at times schizophrenic testimony of a bourgeois "head of the family" who is about to commit a fraud in order to collect insurance money. The trick is quite fanciful, but according to the protagonist's logic, nothing could go wrong.
The novel combines storytelling with literary and artistic criticism and occasionally addresses the reader to make jokes. A notable youthful novel by Nabokov. (Translated from Spanish)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!