Transparent Things (novel)

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Transparent Things is a novel by Vladimir Nabokov published in 1972. It was originally written in English.

[edit] Plot summary

Hugh Person, an American editor, makes his fourth trip to Witt, Switzerland. He first came to the small ski resort at the age of 22 as a tourist with his father who died there. Ten years later he returned to visit Mr. R., the genius writer, and met Armande Chamar who marries him. During a third trip, Person who is frequently troubled by insomnia, nightmares, and sleep-walking, strangled Armande during their sleep. After prison, psychiatric evaluation, and institutionalization, Person, now forty, returns to the Astor Hotel in Witt to recapture the happy time he had spent there with Armande. During the night an arsonist lays a fire to the hotel, and he is trapped and killed.

v • d • e Works by Vladimir Nabokov

Novels	Mary • King, Queen, Knave • The Defense • The Eye • Glory • Laughter in the Dark • Despair • Invitation to a Beheading • The Gift • The Enchanter • The Real Life of Sebastian Knight • Bend Sinister • Lolita • Pnin • Pale Fire • Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle • Transparent Things • Look at the Harlequins! • The Original of Laura (unpublished fragment)

Short stories	Russian: "The Wood-Sprite" • "Russian Spoken Here" • "Sounds" • "Wingstroke" • "Gods" • "A Matter of Chance" • "The Seaport" • "Revenge" • "Beneficence" • "Details of a Sunset" • "The Thunderstorm" • "La Veneziana" • "Bachmann" • "The Dragon" • Christmas" • "A Letter That Never Reached Russia" • "The Fight" • "The Return of Chorb" • "A Guide to Berlin" • "A Nursery Tale" • "Terror" • "Razor" • "The Passenger • "The Doorbell" • "An Affair of Honor" • "The Christmas Story" • "The Potato Elf" • "The Aurelian" • "A Dashing Fellow" • "A Bad Day" • "The Visit to the Museum" • "A Busy Man" • "Terra Incognita" • "The Reunion" • "Lips to Lips" • "Orache" • "Music" • "Perfection" • "The Admiralty Spire" • "The Leonardo" • "In Memory of L. I. Shigaev" • "The Circle" • "A Russian Beauty" • Breaking the News" • "Torpid Smoke" • "Recruiting" • "A Slice of Life" • "Spring in Fialta" • "Cloud, Castle, Lake" • "Tyrants Destroyed" • "Lik" • "Vasiliy Shishkov" • "Ultima Thule" • "Solus Rex" French: "Mademoiselle O" English: "The Assistant Producer" • "That in Aleppo Once..." • "A Forgotten Poet" • "Time and Ebb" • "Conversation Piece, 1945" • "Signs and Symbols" • "First Love" • "Scenes from the Life of a Double Monster" • "The Vane Sisters" • "Lance" • "Easter Rain"

Plays	Death • The Grandfather • The North Pole • The Tragedy of Mr. Morn • The Man from the USSR • The Event • The Waltz Invention

Non-fiction	Speak, Memory • Strong Opinions • Nikolai Gogol • Lectures on Literature • Lectures on Russian Literature • Lectures on Don Quixote • The Nabokov-Wilson letters • Selected Letters, 1940-1977 • Notes on Prosody

Miscellanea	Poems and Problems • Lolita: A Screenplay • The Annotated Lolita • Carrousel