The Story Archive

The Gift

Vladimir Nabokov · 1938 CE · Novel · Russian · Modernist

A young Russian poet in Berlin lives on language lessons, publishes a thin volume nobody reviews properly, and works his way toward the book he is actually meant to write. Between his father's vanished Asian expeditions and a scathing life of Chernyshevsky, the exile colony goes about its shabby business around him. The last and largest of the Russian novels, and Nabokov's farewell to writing in Russian.

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Attributes

Genre
Coming-of-AgePsychological
Theme
Art & CreationExile & HomecomingMemory & TimeLove
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
CreatorWandererLover
Plot structure
BildungsromanMetafictionFrame Narrative
Symbol / motif
The Book / ManuscriptThe LetterThe City
Conflict
vs Selfvs Society
Mode / tone
ModernistLyricalIronic
Culture / tradition
Russian

Closest analogues