Nabokovian, a.
(næbəˈkɒfɪən, nəˈbɒkɒfɪən)
[f. the name Nabokov (see below) + -ian.]
Of, pertaining to, resembling, or characteristic of the Russian-born novelist and poet Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) or his writings.
| 1959 Observer 1 Nov. 21/6 There is a Nabokovian poignancy in leaving such delicate things to be destroyed, as he says with a rueful smile, ‘by such booted people’. 1965 Times Lit. Suppl. 28 Jan. 68/4 Mr. Nabokov's Eugene Onegin will be read not for the learning. It will be read for the brilliant fireworks of his prose and for the beauty of the Nabokovian phrase. 1968 Punch 25 Dec. 932/3 Mr. Stegner chooses instead to invest detail with significance, and he overwrites in truly Nabokovian manner. 1972 Sat. Rev. (U.S.) 10 June 68/2, I found myself searching for Nabokovian anagrams in the names. 1975 Times Lit. Suppl. 31 Oct. 1285/1 The narrative manner similarly alternates between abruptly functional stage or screen-direction and a Nabokovian obliquity in which words take on an energy of their own and skitter away from the matter in hand. |