Ada or Ardor in Nabokov in Three Years

Aug 16, 2008 Inderjit Sanghera rated it really liked it · review of another edition

As a worshipper of all things Nabokov, Ada came as something of a disappointment. Not because it fails to live up to its difficult reputation-a writer as original as Nabokov will always write challenging and original novels because it is part of his art to experiment and play with literary forms. It is the very thing which critics say Nabokov lacks-humanity and the very thing which critics Nabokov of being-pretentious and ostentatious, which weaken Ada’s artistry. In fact, reading Ada, one recal As a worshipper of all things Nabokov, Ada came as something of a disappointment. Not because it fails to live up to its difficult reputation-a writer as original as Nabokov will always write challenging and original novels because it is part of his art to experiment and play with literary forms. It is the very thing which critics say Nabokov lacks-humanity and the very thing which critics Nabokov of being-pretentious and ostentatious, which weaken Ada’s artistry. In fact, reading Ada, one recalls Nabokov’s criticism of ‘Finnegan’s Wake’: “its facade disguises a very conventional and drab tenement house, and only the infrequent snatches of heavenly intonations redeem it from utter insipidity.” Not that I am saying that Ada is an incomprehensible as ‘Finnegan’s Wake’, or indeed a bad or insipid story, but it lacks the brilliance of Nabokov’s other novels; an unpolished diamond hidden amongst the incandescent jewels which form his oeuvre.

Ada is the story of the incestuous relationship between Ada and Van Veen, which stretches across most of their lives and takes place an alternate reality, a Nabokovian reimagining of the earth called Anti-terra. It is a ribaldorous parody of various writers and literary types, from Tolstoy to the romance novel; Nabokov displays an almost Joycean depth of literary references, of both high art and low. Yet, unlike say the literary references in Lolita, there is something tepid about his literary references, from the dismissal of T.S Elliot to the Verlaine references (Riverlane), there is something forced and unnatural about the literary illusions and pastiches, which were one of Nabokov’s strongest literary devices in previous novels-the allusions feel like satire (a lesson), a device which Nabokov disliked, rather than parody (a game), the device which Nabokov preferred.

The prose lacks the iridescence of his previous work, but that is not to say that there aren’t (more than) a few beautiful passages:

“The rails hit by the sun acquired a beautiful metal sheen-the reflection of noon in terms of bright metal.”

There is an almost sinuous quality to the prose, the novel undulating between crassness and a cacophony of beautiful imagery; in many ways this is reflective to the two protagonists, Van and Ada. Selfish and arrogant, their only redeeming feature is the love they feel for one another, a love which lasts a lifetime and forms the framework of the novel. Veen, for all his supercilious posturing, conjures up several beautiful and brilliant descriptions of Ada:

“the child he had known in minute detail four years before stood vividly illumined in his mind against the backdrop of flowing blue. The eyes. The eyes kept her voluptuous palpebral creases; the lashes, their semblance of jet-dusted incrustation; the raised-iris, its Hindu-hypnotic position; the lids, their inability to stay alert and wide open during the briefest embrace; but those eyes’ expression-had changed as if new layers of reticence and sadness had accumulated, half-veiling the pupil, while the glossy eyeballs shifted in their lovely long sockets with a more restless motion than of yore.”

Perhaps it is too harsh a description of Van and Ada as merely being sneering and arrogant, after all both characters display kindness and affection to different characters in the novel-both are, in their own ways brilliant and intelligent yet, there is a mark on the polished veneer of their relationship-the green and russet smudge which interrupts the paradise of their love, hovering enviously on their heavenly abode. During Ada, Nabokov satirizes Maupassant’s short story, The Necklace, who sentimental, sententious and all too obvious moralising irritated Nabokov. Nabokov frequently cast himself as a completely amoral writer-a writer whose only purpose was to seek what he deemed aesthetic bliss. Yet that is not entirely truthful-Nabokov was a high moralistic writer, it is just that he disguises his morals beneath the veneer of his dazzling prose. The moral messages in his books are not always immediately obvious to the reader-Lolita’s sobs and Pnin’s anguish, the unloved and the unnoticed-these are the themes which form the core of Nabokov’s novels and in the case of Ada, it is Lucette, who Ada and Van regard as either and idiotic nuisance or plaything, whose light is cut off by the incandescence of Van and Ada’s love. Yet, despite this, she radiates an inner beauty which Van and Ada lack, a sense of tact and kindness which Van and Ada rarely display or feel and the careful reader is able to pick up on this;

“From under the wavy wide brim of her floppy hat of black faille, with a great black bow surmounting it, a spiral of intentionally disarranged, expertly curled, bright copper descends her flaming cheek, and the light of the bar’s ‘gem bulbs’ plays on her bouffant front hair, which, as seen laterally, convexes from beneath the extravagant brim of a picture hat right down to her long thin eyebrow.”
Yet, for all of its merits, Ada is unsatisfactory as a work of art-especially one created by Nabokov and the occasional beautiful passage doesn’t save it from being relegated one of Nabokov’s less successful works.
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Apr 13, 2014 Publius rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: nabokov, five-star-books, novels, american

"Ada, or Ardor" is a mammoth of a novel, Nabokov's longest, and probably only ranks behind "The Gift" in difficulty. The novel is filled with passages of true Nabokovian brilliance followed by passages reeking of senility from an aging genius. Thankfully, the brilliance outweighs the senility in Ada. Nabokov exercises his wit in fashioning many, many (sometimes almost excessively) puns (some even multilingual) in this, his most punning novel. Overall, a very good read and an essential novel to a ...more

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