Despair cover art

Despair

 Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Despair

By: Vladimir Nabokov
Narrated by: Christopher Lane
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £18.99

Buy Now for £18.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Extensively revised by Nabokov in 1965 - 30 years after its original publication - Despair is the wickedly inventive and richly derisive story of Hermann, a man who undertakes the perfect crime: his own murder.

One of the 20th century’s master prose stylists, Vladimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg in 1899. He studied French and Russian literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, then lived in Berlin and Paris, where he launched a brilliant literary career. In 1940 he moved to the United States, and achieved renown as a novelist, poet, critic, and translator. He taught literature at Wellesley, Stanford, Cornell, and Harvard. In 1961 he moved to Montreux, Switzerland, where he died in 1977.

Public Domain (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, Inc. Classics Crime Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological Fiction France Switzerland
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Mary cover art
Look at the Harlequins! cover art
The Eye cover art
Pale Fire cover art
King, Queen, Knave cover art
Glory cover art
The Enchanter cover art
Invitation to a Beheading cover art
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight cover art
Laughter in the Dark cover art
The Luzhin Defense cover art
Speak Memory cover art
Blood Meridian cover art
The Captain's Table cover art
The Man in Lower Ten cover art
The Roman Hat Mystery cover art

Critic reviews

“Nabokov writes prose the only way it should be written, that is, ecstatically.” (John Updike)
“A beautiful mystery plot, not to be revealed.” ( Newsweek)

What listeners say about Despair

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    11
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    11
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Audible.co.uk reviews

Amazon reviews
Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
Profile Image for RONAN O'CALLAGHAN

Refined entertainment

Don’t be put off by the title. It is all enormous fun. Christopher Lane’s reading is one of those which go beyond the audiobook’s general convenience of having the story read to you and make of it a theatrical event.
Nabokov’s performance in creating this monstrous unreliable narrator is tongue in cheek throughout. Lane’s reading amplifies the humour and absurdity with poise and assurance.
Reading with a post Lolita perspective, it is not hard to see in Despair an early dry run which would lead in due course to the appalling Humbert Humbert.

Report this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!