Laughter in the Dark

This extraordinary novel is truly one work of fiction which represents life itself. Perhaps it could be considered Art imitating life. Nabokov uses a light and breezy style of writing to tell his tale of total deception and betrayal. It is quite the archetypal description of a more or less good man being defiled and destroyed by a wily and wicked lady who is intent on gaining for herself all that she can and providing for herself a life of leisure and comfort at the expense of so many other people.The novel descriptively and expertly depicts how a man of substance is taken by a young wench who had been a sycophant upon others for her living. The man, Albinus, is taken by the young lady, Margot and he decides he must have her. Margot sees in Albinus, the opportunity to have her life made comfortable at Albinus' expense and she is not even satisfied to live with Albinus and provide him with love and comfort. No; her background as a virtual prostitute leads her to a life of debauchery and deception that only a woman of low breeding and character can impose upon a man.She first manages to get the man to take her in. Then through a blatant and cunning little trick, she reveals her existence to the man's wife, so as to get her out of the way of her plan. The wife is so totally distraught that she leaves her husband and takes her daughter with her to live with her brother. But the wife's life becomes one of total depression and despair as every day she must face up to the reality that a young parasitic woman has wrested her husband away from her.In a manner that can only be arranged by such a woman, she sets herself up in a hotel and carries on a flagrant sexual affair with another man, while staying with the husband, but not living with him as his loving mistress. No, she totally betrays him in every possible manner, particularly sexually. Her other paramour has been set up to deceive the husband into believing he is just a good friend and driver for the couple. But all along, the plan is to be secret lovers right under the nose of the husband who has chucked his former life of domestic tranquility for the love of what can only be described as a tart.The story is very descriptive in Nabokov's usual unique style and goes on to describe the horrid depth of betrayal that she brings upon Albinus while making herself the recipient of all that he has to offer, including his money which he tricks him into laying out to her for supposed goods and services. The ultimate sexual betrayal scene is brilliantly depicted by Nabokov and elucidated in great and grand detail. Finally, Albinus senses that this horror story is truly going on and pulls Margot away from the hotel and into the car. During that ride, Albinus who is not a good driver and totally distressed to realize how he has been deceived by Margot, gets into an accident which results in his loss of sight. As an expert in Art from which he makes his living, this loss of his sight is just one more horrible betrayal laid upon him by Margot.The book continues through more treacherous betrayal and more intense theft of Albinus' assets. The end of the story is most severe and horrid for Albinus and truly describes how a man can be taken to the lowest state of being by a woman who is intent on destroying him for her own devious and avaricious purposes. It is one thing when a woman seeks to live a life of leisure by capturing such a man and turning his head so he gives up his live, his wife, his children and all that came before so she can have him and live in total comfort as his mistress. But Nabokov takes it to the highest degree depicting a woman that is not even that kind to her man. She does not even attempt to make Albinus happy, but instead, carries on with others virtually immediately.It shall be left to the reader to see how Margot achieves this masterful and disgusting accomplishment and what becomes of Albinus in the end. Yet Nabokov's pure genius in story telling is presented in this tale which so deeply captures a part of life that so many at some point experience, often to their total ruination. The tale is a quick reading and wonderful story which all Nabokov devotees should read so as to experience once again how Nabokov captures this true life experience in a story of fiction which could be the biography of all too many good men. The book is recommended for all Nabokov readers and all readers who wish to experience the ultimate betrayal in life by a woman. Only a woman could be this cruel and heartless, and as she is in this story, so it is in real life often as well.

This felt like a film noir and one of the more twisted ones at that. Being that it was written in 1938 and involves the film industry there may be some relevance to that comparison. I feel Nabokovs over the top characters are toned down enough so that it is not an absurd style experience like other early works. The over the top in an animated/fantasy would be associated with Invitation to a Beheading and Bend Sinister. This contains down to earth characters that are animated but remain attached to the ground.Margot is immediately a classic Nabokov character. She is not brilliant like Ada, or slightly evil like Lolita but shares the same type of character defect as Lolita in that they both use people as objects and therefore have moral issues.I enjoyed the playfulness of Margot and the way she remained very secretive. Nabokov was brilliantly vague on her character development. He basically leaves her role as commented on by the main character-Albinus--(another classic name similar to Cincinatius from invitation to a beheading), reducing her inner dialogue to feelings about Rex. There are mainly just 3 characters in a sort of melodrama play but there are a few other main characters, mainly Albinu's family.Margot therefore remains mysterious while the 2 other males living wit her are developed in a more in depth manner.I agree with several of the reviews that this is his most accessible book, or rather it is written in a very traditional way without any anagrams or tons of french phrases. I feel the style works perfect here because it gives it the right kind of feel to the structure of the novel.This is the 8th Nabokov book i have read so i feel by this point i can relate it to his other works and safely say this one seems to be the most traditionally written.I do not see this as being any more light in the sense of comedy than any of his others. I actually laughed out loud more reading Bend Sinister. I feel Nabokov is a master of injecting wonderful poetic moments that can unexpectedly be moving enough to draw tears.The part about Albiniu's family echo's Bend Sinister in that it show Nabokov to be a family man at heart and believe in the family unit. I feel; Bend Sinister was about the change that happens internal to a family when your socioeconomic environment changes rapidly or in a chaotic way. A theme similar to that deals with Albiniu's family and the dramatic elements remind me of William Thackery's style.I feel this is just as dark as most of his works but has a big heart as well. The first time i noticed Nabokov was actually a very compassionate artist was when reading King Queen Knave. Just the scenes where the main characters pass time together reminds me of nemonic ways to bring up cherished memories of my past life. Nobokov is an important artist.

Although I loved Nabokov's memoir, "Speak, Memory," this is the first novel by him that I have read. Published in 1933, the reader immediately knows what will happen. Albinus, a respectable man who lives in Berlin with his wife and young daughter, becomes besotted with a young woman and this affair leads to disaster.This is an old, old story. It involves a man who feels bored, trapped and is looking for excitement. Unfortunately, he finds this with an immature, spiteful and vicious young woman, whose early life has left her resentful and more than ready to use Albinus for money. He, of course, adores her, while she cares not a jot for him and he is unable to see this fact until it is too late.Although this was described as darkly humorous, I felt it was more tragic. You feel for Albinus, despite his faults, as you see him stepping towards the precipice that fate has in store. Considering that the plot was set out in the very beginning though, this was a gripping read. It is a little like passing an accident and being unable to look away, just hoping that there was a chance of escape. I will definitely be reading more of Nabokov's work.

Albert Albinus is an art critic and aspiring film-maker. He has connections to the Berlin bohemian set of the late 1920’s – but he’s respectable, middle-aged, married to Elisabeth, and has lonely little Irma to look after. He’s also very rich. Given the period and context of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Laughter in the Dark, the reader might well be preparing for something historical, but pages in, and there’s no indication of economic inflation or power politics. Instead, we learn that Elizabeth is not just of a highly intuitive personality, she’s what might be popularly referred to as psychic. So, she might well have cause to feel uneasy, when we learn that Albinus has developed an obsession with a young cinema usherette.My Penguin Modern Classics copy says on the back; ‘Deadpan and devilishly funny…’ The key word here is ‘devilish.’ Albinus might well be dim-witted and emotionally-immature, but what happens to him, and how, is – in my opinion – not in the least funny, that is unless you’re ready to split your sides at such a man being fleeced by a ‘vulgar little Berlin girl.’ I recall the blurb on Marina Lewycka’s Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian describing it as ‘hilarious.’ Not for this reader it wasn’t. My heart was in my mouth at the suggestion that an elderly man was about to be fleeced by – in that case – a vulgar big Ukrainian girl. The problem is no doubt mine, I am after all, the kind who finds Laurel and Hardy frustrating almost to the point of tears, and anything but funny. In the case of Albinus he's about to be not only fleeced, but cuckolded by the supercilious and sinister film producer Rex; and something much worse befalls him - which you must read in order to find out what – which makes the situation even more upsetting for a reader of an emotionally-nervous disposition such as myself.So much for the book’s emotional impact. Technically, it’s a joy to read. I recall one of my creative writing mentors insisting that Nabokov never wrote a word of prose until he’d built every character, set every scene, worked out what each narrator could hear, smell, taste, touch – hear ye, particularly in the case of this novel! - and this book is no exception to that rule. There are 5 characters; Albinus the dim-witted, Margot the ‘vulgar’, Elizabeth the intuitive, her brother Paul the faithful, and Rex the b******. We briefly meet other characters at a deliciously-narrated supper of bohemians, and have a brush with Margot’s perhaps predictably-truculent brother. Plot-wise it’s ludicrous; lurchingly operatic in its choice of action – I would have expected the competition to be more evenly matched by say Albinus being more streetwise, and I really did anticipate something more searchingly psychological, but it’s ‘early Nabokov’, perhaps was playing safe, and that the more mature the Nabokov, the deeper they get? This is my first Nabokov and I will doubtless be reading more.

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.The prosperous Albert Albinus is married to Elisabeth, but he begins to have a passion for a young cinema usherette called Margot Peters. She had had a promiscuous past, and she encouraged his attentions, especially when she discovered how wealthy he was. Albinus was terrified that Elisabeth would find out; but he was still besotted by Margot. He gave her money to set her up in a flat of her own. She wrote to him, giving its address – but he was out when the letter arrived. Elisabeth opened it, and immediately she and her eight year old daughter left the house before he returned home, to stay with her brother Paul. Disconsolate, Albinus first went over to stay with Margot in the flat he had rented for her; and later they moved into his own home.At a party he threw, one of the guests was a shady character called Axel Rex, a forger of works of art, and who found amusement in being a mischief-maker. It turns out that, two years earlier, when Margot had been an artists’ model, he had been her lover, but he had left her. Now he was pleased to see her again, and became a regular visitor to the house. Margot hoped that the wealthy Albinus would divorce his wife and marry her; but she spent afternoons with Rex in a room he had rented.Albinus suspected nothing. He took Margot on holiday in France, and Rex came with them. In the hotel, too, Margot found more opportunities to deceive Albinus with Rex. Eventually the cuckold found out, and he decided to shoot Margot with a pistol he had always kept in his coat. She talked him out of it, and managed to persuade the besotted man that she had not betrayed him – but he could not bear to see Rex again, and insisted that he and Margot drive home immediately. But he was a terrible driver, had a serious accident and came to in a French hospital. He had gone totally blind.Rex had Margot read to Albinus a letter in which he said he was going to the United States. In fact, he did not. He and Margot found a chalet in the Swiss mountains for Albinus, and Rex moved in also, and silently and with amusement watched Albinus’ devotion to Margot, or, silently, would caress Margot in Albinus’ presence. Margot got Albinus to sign cheques draw cash from his account for household expenses. Albinus could not, of course, read the amount, and Rex had filled in large amounts, most of which were then appropriated by him and Margot.Rex became increasingly careless about not making a sound, while Albinus’ sense of hearing had become stronger in his blindness, and Albinus sometimes thought he could hear the presence of another person.It so happened that Paul and Albinus had the same bank. The bank’s manager was a friend of Paul’s, and showed him the cheques and gave him Albinus’ address in Switzerland. He burst into the chalet. Margot happened to be out, and Rex was at that moment amusing himself by touching Albinus’ face with a blade of grass and watching the blind man swat away at what he thought was a fly. Paul shouted Rex’s name, and everything became horribly clear to Albinus. Rex fled to an upper floor, and Paul rushed Albinus into the taxi that he had kept waiting and drove him back to Berlin and to Elisabeth. Albinus did not utter a word: he seemed to have become dumb as well as blind.The concierge of the Berlin flat Albinus had shared with Margot phoned to say that Margot had turned up there and that he had let her in. Unbelievably, Albinus managed to find a taxi to take him to the flat, found his way into the room in which Margot was collecting her belongings. As he was waving his pistol about and tried to locate her exactly, she managed to seize the weapon, to kill him, and to make her escape back to Rex in France.Although there are improbabilities in the story – especially between the time that Paul had found Albinus in Switzerland and the end of the novel - this is a gripping story of a man’s painful humiliations.

Excellently written, acutely observed. Nabokov has an interesting mind and a complete understanding of character. Why only 3 stars? Because I couldn't see the point. Albinus isn't interesting enough, Margot not damaged or dreadful enough, even the unhinged Axel doesn't quite achieve the degree of chaotic mischief-making that would make the story worth telling. Overall it's rather a confection than a main course, but well worth reading nonetheless.

I'm re-reading the great man. I love his supreme cleverness, which he never tries to mask or camouflage. He knows his readers, and the rest can go jump in the Waldsee. There has been no one, there is no one, and there never will be anyone who can match him for the sheer joy of words put together and dangled before the reader like crown jewels (you can look, but you can't touch). Laughter in the Dark is hilarious, sly, gripping, moving, farcical, and, well, brilliant. It's also very good. Read him, enjoy him, revere him. We shall not look on his like again.