Ada or Ardor
by Vladimir Nabokov(1969)
Novelc. 600 pages
“All happy families are more or less dissimilar; all unhappy ones are more or less alike.”
One great work, every day
by Vladimir Nabokov(1969)
“All happy families are more or less dissimilar; all unhappy ones are more or less alike.”
Vladimir Nabokov(1969)
Van Veen and his cousin (or sister) Ada fall in love as teenagers on an estate called Ardis, and their affair continues across decades, across a world that resembles ours but is not quite. Nabokov called it his most ambitious novel, and it may be his most difficult: dense with allusion, wordplay in three languages, and a theory of time that the narrative embodies. It is also a love story of remarkable tenderness. Nabokov published it in 1969, at seventy, and considered it his masterpiece.