Vladimir #Nabokov’s delicious, extraordinary and ecstatic books have been a mainstay of my literary life for over 20 years, and this autumn/ winter I’m once again re-reading them all in roughly chronological order... Will post about them from time to time along the way...

1. Nabokov’s very charming first novel is Mary (1925). Opening trapped in a broken-down Berlin elevator, this compact, fragile book introduces us to Nabokov’s lifelong preoccupation with exile, time & memory: past & present constantly, feverishly, intermingle in joy & pain...

2. On its bright, brutish material surface, King, Queen, Knave (1928) satirises the ‘novel of adultery’ but it also subtly terrifies, showing some of the roots of the banality of evil amid bourgeois mechanisms & playthings (dogs, balls, dolls, lovers...). It is sly, scary...

3. The Luzhin Defense (1929) is perhaps Nabokov’s fullest exploration of the dangers & difficulties we find balancing intellectual endeavour with human commitment. Ostensibly VN’s chess novel, it brilliantly, compassionately interrogates the concepts of metaphor & infinity.

4. The Eye (1930) is a metaphysical detective story, a hell of mirrors, exploring identity, imagination and alienation. A compressed wonder, it is Nabokov’s shortest novel and a mind-bending technical accomplishment.

5. Nabokov’s Glory (1932) is an eerily beautiful tale, hiding its metaphysical anxiety behind a mask of simplicity and lyricism. The gorgeous grey ending mysteriously links back across the book in a feast of strange connections. A constant, absolute delight.

6. Laughter in the Dark (1932). A book written as if it was a film, Nabokov’s sixth novel is vindictively hilarious, deeply haunting and full of passages of writing that take the breath away. A menacing marvel.

7. Nabokov’s Despair (1934) dangerously ensnares us in its protagonist’s dazzling mind, begging us to break free from his narcissism and his crimes. But we don’t and we become trapped in the war between the novel’s narrator and its creator... An unsinkable scream of delight.

8. Written in a furious fortnight, Invitation to a Beheading (1936) is an unnerving poetic nightmare of identity and isolation, a passionate criticism of crudity, vulgarity and stupidity. A celebration of individuality and hope — and one of Nabokov’s finest achievements.

9. The Gift (1938) is Nabokov’s last, longest and greatest Russian novel. A luminous study of a maturing artist, a patient love story, as well as a passionate survey of Russian literature, it is a glittering kaleidoscope of colours, people and places. A dazzling farewell.

10. Nabokov’s first novel in English, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1941) is a subtle gem about loss, identity and quiet pain. Mock biography, satirical mystery, spoof detective thriller, ghost story — RLSK is a discreet comic torment of disappointment and desperation.

11. Bend Sinister (1947) is a harsh and difficult novel, infused with freakish, lustrous, scintillating prose. Savage, murky, cruel, it is a brutal work of fate and folklore, protest and protection, playing with Hamlet and scholarship as well as the limits of language...

12. Nabokov’s Lolita (1955) shocks us, amuses us, enraptures us, possesses us — word after word, line after line, page after page. A feast of language and ferocious indictment of brutality, it plays a vivid, dangerous game, taunting our assumptions and teasing our ethics.

13. Pnin (1957) is a brilliant comic masterpiece with a dark, dark heart. Beautifully structured in episodes that make us complicit in Pnin’s suffering, before a radical change at the end that explodes the novel’s inner meaning. A joyful work, full of quiet dignity and pain.

14. Pale Fire (1962) is perhaps Nabokov’s supreme achievement. A novel pretending to be a scholarly edition of a poem, it is a beautiful, hilarious and terrifying study of art, love and loss. It not only demands but ferociously requires ceaseless re-readings into infinity...

15. Ada (1969) is Nabokov’s longest novel and an opulent work interrogating time & sex, obsession & redemption. Fairy tale parody, spoof erotica and mock 19th century novel, it is also an alternate history, rich and riveting, full of quirks and wonders. An outlandish marvel.

16. Transparent Things (1972) is a dazzling reliquary of sadness: precious, elusive, exquisite, bleak & concise. One of Nabokov’s greatest works, its furious network of narrators zoom with a hyper-cinematic lens, effortlessly plummeting into objects & veering into the past.

17. Look at the Harlequins! (1974) is Nabokov’s last completed novel. A sly journey into parody, identity & madness, it taunts naïve readers and idle critics, while celebrating the author’s affection for his beloved Véra and asking us all to reconsider how we appreciate art.

18. Speak, Memory (1951), Nabokov’s autobiography, evokes the past with a seductive sweep & miraculous recall of delectable detail. It bears a familiar strangeness, the memories both common & anomalous, themes developing like leitmotifs into a vast coral reef of connectivity.

19. Mesmerising compressed wonders, Nabokov’s short stories are full of wit, sadness, mystery, invention & surprise. Many of them — especially ‘Signs & Symbols’, ‘Spring in Fialta’, ‘Cloud, Castle, Lake’ & ‘The Vane Sisters’ — stand comparison with the greatest of his novels.