While I'm not sure exactly how it ended up on the shelf, I imagine this collection of four short stories was in the bargain bin at the local used bookstore. While I adored Lolita and loved Pale Fire with a burning passion, these stories struck me as rather forgettable by comparison. Interestingly, three of the four were originally written in Russian, and these earlier works have a completely different voice from the one I have come to associate with Nabokov in English. However, it's a much less distinctive one, that could nearly be confused with Dostoevsky (in the case of the first two stories) or Kafka (in the case of the final one). Only The Vane Sisters, written much later and requiring no translation, speaks with the author's characteristic parodic erudition. Though none of the stories especially struck me, they did make for a nice plane ride to Tuscon.
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