Quote Originally Posted by Оля View Post
I'm surprised to hear that because Nabokov is famous with his brilliant language in his prose (I don't like his poetry though). Probably he was great in prose only when he wrote in Russian. However, I read 'Lolita' (in Russian, of course), and I found the language really brilliant. Actually, it's the main virtue of the novel. I don't mean I didn't find the plot interesting; but the language is what is the best about the novel. I can say the same about his other things, by the way.
Nabokov's own description of Lolita was "My Valentine's card to the English language" -- and like a number of his other novels, it was written first in English and then personally translated by Nabokov himself into Russian.