Vladimir Nabokov

A Russian-born American novelist and poet. Born into a noble family in St. Petersburg. His father was the Minister of Justice in the Kerensky Cabinet. Following the Russian Revolution, the family fled to Western Europe. After graduating from Cambridge University, he first lived in Berlin, and then, with the rise of the Nazis, in Paris, where he published his works under the pen name V. Sirin. He then abandoned Russian and tried to write in French and English. In 1940, he moved to America to escape the flames of war, and devoted himself to writing in English while working as a university lecturer. His novel "Lolita", which depicts the love of a middle-aged sexual pervert for a beautiful girl and was published in Paris in 1955 and later banned, was published in America in 1958 and became a bestseller. He created a unique world with his imagination full of fantasy and nostalgia, and his elegant and intelligent writing style has earned him recognition as a unique writer even in the English-speaking world. He is known as an international writer along with Beckett and Borges. Some critics, however, see the linguistic play characteristic of his English works as empty, and say that Nabokov's true merit lies in his Russian works, such as The King, the Queen and the Jack (1928, translated into English in 1968), which deals with an ironic love triangle; The Guard (1930, translated into English in 1964), which has a chess fanatic as its protagonist; Margo (1933, translated into English in 1938), which depicts an innocent villain; Despair (1936, translated into English in 1937), which has a neurotic man plotting the perfect crime; The Gift (1937, translated into English in 1963), a book about longing for and farewell to his homeland; and Call to the Scaffold (1938, translated into English in 1959), a strange tale of a man imprisoned because he is not like other men. His English works include The True Life of Sebastian Knight (1941), in which the life of a Russian-born English writer is reconstructed by his half-brother; Bend Sinister (1947), the tragedy of a politically indifferent person in a totalitarian society; Pnin (1957), a tragicomedy about an exiled Russian professor at an American university; the aforementioned Lolita; A Pale Flame (1962), which depicts the tragedy of the fictional King of Zembla, with poems by John Shuid and annotations and index by Charles Kinbote; Ada (1969), which is a story of incest between 100-year-old siblings set in "Anti-Terra," which coexists with the real "Earth" (Terra), and is also a book that aims to clarify the structure of time, and has received mixed reviews for its notable play on words and fantasy. He also produced a poetic autobiography, Speak Memory (1951), and a four-volume translation of Eugene Onegin. In 1958, he returned to Montreux, Switzerland, where he died.

[Eiichiro Otsu]

"Ada, Volumes 1 and 2, translated by Saito Kazue (1977, Hayakawa Publishing)" ▽ "The Gift, translated by Otsu Eiichiro (1967, Hakusuisha)" ▽ "Nabokov's Autobiography: Memory, Speak (translated by Otsu Eiichiro (1979, Shobunsha)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

ロシア生まれのアメリカの小説家、詩人。サンクト・ペテルブルグの名門貴族の出身。父はケレンスキー内閣の法相。ロシア革命に追われ一族で西欧に亡命、彼はケンブリッジ大学を卒業後、当初はベルリンに、のちナチスの台頭とともにパリに住み、V. Sirinの筆名で作品を発表。その後ロシア語を捨てフランス語と英語で著述を試みる。1940年、戦火を避けてアメリカに移住してからは、大学講師のかたわら英語の著述に専念。55年パリで出版、のち発禁処分を受けた中年性倒錯者の美少女への愛を描く長編小説『ロリータ』が58年アメリカで刊行されベストセラーになる。幻想とノスタルジアに満ちた想像力で独自の世界をつくりあげ、華麗で知的な文体は英語圏でもユニークな作家として評価を受ける。ベケット、ボルヘスとともに国際的作家と称される。しかし英語の作品に特徴的な言語的遊びを空疎とみなし、ロシア語の作品にナボコフの真価があるとする評家もいる。ロシア語の作品には、皮肉な三角関係を扱った『キング、クィーンそしてジャック』（1928、英訳1968）、チェス・マニアを主人公とした『守り』（1930、英訳1964）、無邪気な悪女を描く『マルゴ』（1933、英訳1938）、完全犯罪をたくらむノイローゼの男を主人公とする『絶望』（1936、英訳1937）、故国への望郷と決別の書『賜物』（1937、英訳1963）、他の人間と同じでないという理由で投獄されている男の奇妙な物語『断頭台への招待』（1938、英訳1959）などがある。英語の作品には、ロシア生まれの英語作家の生涯を腹違いの弟が再構成する『セバスチアン・ナイトの真実の生涯』（1941）、全体主義社会のなかで政治に無関心な人間の悲劇『ベンド・シニスター』（1947）、亡命ロシア人教授のアメリカの大学での悲喜劇『プニン』（1957）、前述の『ロリータ』、ジョン・シュイドの詩とチャールズ・キンボーテの注釈と索引で架空のゼンブラ王国国王の悲劇を描く『淡い焔(ほのお)』（1962）、現実の「地上(テラ)」と併存する「アンチ・テラ」での100歳の兄妹の近親相姦(そうかん)物語であると同時に時間の構造を明らかにするための書で、ことばや空想の遊びが目だち賛否両論のある『アーダ』（1969）、また詩的自伝『記憶よ、語れ』（1951）、翻訳『ユージン・オネーギン』4巻などがある。58年、スイスのモントルーに戻り、その地で死去。

［大津栄一郎］

『斎藤数衛訳『アーダ』上下（1977・早川書房）』▽『大津栄一郎訳『賜物』（1967・白水社）』▽『大津栄一郎訳『ナボコフ自伝――記憶よ、語れ』（1979・晶文社）』

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