[Borges]

Nabokov's work has dated less than just about any writer of his generation. The high/low cultural divide that he satirizes in Lolita is still very relevant and is actually more pronounced now than it was in the early 1950s. Not to mention the fact that the prose is a joy to read. One can't say that about Mann's leaden prose. ‘Pale Fire’ is simply sui generis. There's nothing like it and it's been called the greatest novel of the 20th century by more than one informed critic. If it's even a novel. It created its own genre.

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Nabokov's work has dated less than just about any writer of his generation. The high/low cultural divide that he satirizes in Lolita is still very relevant and is actually more pronounced now than it was in the early 1950s.

If Nabokov's writing hasn't dated as much as some other writers, it's because so much of what he wrote wasn't tied to the way of life of a past era. That doesn't quite apply to Lolita.

Satire of the provincialism of the 1950s reads as provincial now. 50 years from now, if we've moved on from Oprah, reality TV, and the rest of what obsesses people now, satirical references to it will be pretty flat to future readers.

Not to mention the fact that the prose is a joy to read. One can't say that about Mann's leaden prose.

Mann wrote in a rich German that's difficult to render in English translation. Our loss.

‘Pale Fire’ is simply sui generis. There's nothing like it and it's been called the greatest novel of the 20th century by more than one informed critic. If it's even a novel. It created its own genre.

Well, it will rate high in a list of works of the genre it created. It's less successful as a novel than Lolita.

Lolita is a good enough novel. It just doesn't deserve to be overpraised.