The contagious spirit of Nabokov himself, a style that is the matter of his masterpiece Lolita, has infected and affected the wise author of this lively new interpretation of the book, which offers an indispensable look at the moral art of the Master. -Donald Harington, author of With Style Is Matter offers a subtle, reflective, and well-grounded exploration of ... Read moreNabokov's literary thought and practice from an ethical point of view-where ethics, as Nabokov himself would insist, cannot be divorced from style, but never lapses into mere formalism. Leland de la Durantaye scrutinizes Nabokov's own often contradictory and flamboyant pronouncements on art, and combs the fiction both for theoretical claims and detailed examples of what Nabokov's literary ethic looks like when it's at work. This remarkable book is extremely well written, often witty, and informed throughout by a discreet intelligence and strong personal commitment to the material. -Michael Wood, Charles Barnwell Straut Class of 1923 Professor and Professor of Comparative Literature, Princeton University, author of The Magician's Doubts: Nabokov and the Risks of Fiction Hitler's mass murderer, Eichmann, when awaiting trial in Jerusalem, read Nabokov's Lolita. He pronounced it an immoral book. Readers less famous but equally perceptive have agreed. The editor of the Scottish Sunday Express found Lolita, 'the filthiest book I have ever read.' The author of Style is Matter does not, of course, spend much time refuting the absurdity of these views. His splendidly insightful, readable book deals not only with the moral nature of Nabokov's novels but also with the ethical dimension of great fiction, and of all great art. Readers need not be troubled-by the expectation of seeing what I suppose will be their own point of view argued, however ably, for this book is a constantly surprising and delightful work of criticism. -Clarence Brown, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature, Princeton University The centerpiece of this erudite, philosophically sophisticated study is Nabokov's Lolita-most particularly, the moral issues intrinsic to its subject and structure and the hotly debated questions to which they give rise. In an effort to solve the 'riddle' of how to read this controversial novel, Durantaye also discusses relevant aspects of numerous other works of Nabokov's fiction, from his earliest Russian novel, Mary, to the last one he completed in English, Look at the Harlequins! Cutting a broad swath through Nabokov's oeuvre, the author at the same time digs deep, paying as much, if not more, attention to Nabokov's statements and opinions about art-culled from the author's abundant letters, interviews, essays, lectures, scholarly studies, and translation projects-as he does to the verbal texture, or style, of a specific novel, Lolita included. -Nabokov Studies The focal point of Durantaye's graceful and thoughtful book is Lolita, in particular the ambivalence-the uneasy mixture of empathy and antipathy-that most readers and critics feel toward the novel's hero and narrator, Humbert Humbert. At once seducing readers through his rhetorical skill and repelling them through his vile behavior, Humbert raises in especially acute form the question of the interrelationship in Lolita of the aesthetic and the moral-a matter that has exercised Nabokov's best critics, and not only of Lolita. Therefore, while using Lolita as a starting point and a touchstone, de la Durantaye looks to the whole body of Nabokov's writing. -Nabokov Online Journal Style is Matter is beautifully written, and it is a pleasure to read. While Leland de la Durantaye expresses a sufficient number of 'strong opinions' of his own that are likely to provoke debate, he has done a fine job of outlining how Nabokov's art works, and why it resists facile interpretation. This book will serve as a useful reference point for future discussions of Lolita and Nabokov's work as a whole. -Slavic Review Show Less