RANIKHET’S GIFT summary
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The Gift Nabokov’s last and greatest Russian novel, is set in Russian emigre Berlin in the late 1920’s. The hero, Fyodor Godunov
Cherdyntsev, is a young poet and writer seeking to find his own voice and place in the Russian literary tradition.
The former aristocrat, forever barred from his homeland, leads a pleasantly precarious existence giving lessons, doing translations, and selling an occasional poem. The Gift has a dual plot line: the evolution of Fyodor’s art, and the course of his love affair with fellow emigre Zina Mertz.
As the novel opens, Fyodor, who just published his first book of poems, is settling in at a new rooming house. That evening he visits Alexander and Alexandra Chernyshevski, who have befriended the young poet after the suicide of their son. Exercising his artistic imagination, Fyodor tries to enter the mind of each of the people present.
Alexander Chernyshevski is on the verge of madness, and through Alexander’s eyes Fyodor sees the shadowy figure of his dead son Yasha, among the guests.
A few months pass, and Fyodor receives a visit from his mother, who lives in Paris. They reminisce about their idyllic family life in Russia before the revolution. Their greatest concern, however, is the fate of Fyodor’s father, a famous explorer who disappeared while returning from Tibet. Although he is presumed dead, both mother and son still hope for his return.
An austere scientist as well as a man of action Fyodor’s father possessed an aura of secret knowledge that set him apart from others. Fyodor, who idolizes his father, decides to write his biography.
After many months, he abandons the project feeling that he is unable to capture his father’s mysterious essence. Fyodor has not yet mastered the themes and techniques that will mark him as a great artist.
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Ranikhets gift summary