Customer Reviews

Style Is Matter: The Moral Art of Vladimir Nabokov

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I seldom read literary criticism, just because I'm lazy, and like the fiction itself more, but this book is that rare thing, a piece of criticism that enlightens rather than obscures. Although De La Durantaye is occasionally self-indulgent--spending a half-page too much on the title of Pale Fire, for example--most of the book is admirably direct and on-topic. Side issues, like Nabokov's extreme dislike of Freudianism, are delightful extras. For readers who like Lolita, but feel uncomfortable about liking it; or for any devoted lover of V. Nabokov's works, because De La Durantaye's comments illuminate them all.

have studied Nabokov extensively and was hoping this would add to the corpus of existing gems in the field of Nabokov studies (by which I include figures like Rorty and Andrews, but especially Kevin Ohi). Unfortunately despite two reads I could only find one thing that was sufficiently new or interesting to remark upon, namely De la Durantaye's fresh reinterpretation of (if I remember his name rightly off the top of my head) Gerard de Vries's interpretation of the 'old poet's' lines in Lolita. De Vries made the shrewd observation that these lines were a paraphrastic summary of a passage from Poe's 'Poetic Principle', whilst Durantaye shows how this is not as straightforward as it may have seemed to De Vries. Nonetheless, if you're serious about studying Nabokov this book does not provide sufficient new insight into Nabokov Studies. You'd be better off with David Andrews's study of Aestheticism and Lolita, as well as the essays to be found in the Nabokov Studies journal that ran for a few years and many of the other writers that have worked in this field. Kevin Ohi's analysis is excellent in his study of the erotic child (Innocence and Rapture). Rorty's analysis is flawed but forms part of a great work (Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity). Anyone starting out in Nabokov Studies may want to read through Lolita: A Reader's Guide to Essential Criticism edited by Christine Clegg. De La Durantaye's work is certainly not boring, but I think apart from the novel insight I mentioned above, it's a step back in the field rather than a step forward.