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 -- Mademoiselle O -- Vasiliy Shishkov -- Ultima Thule -- Solus Rex -- 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.;Here, for the first time, the stories of one of the century's greatest prose stylists are collected in a single, comprehensive volume. Written from the early 1920s - the years of his exile from Russia - to the mid-1950s, when he abandoned the story form and turned to his English-language masterpieces Lolita, Pale Fire, and Ada, these stories reveal the fascinating progress of Nabokov's early development as they remind us that we are in the presence of a magnificent original, a genuine master. Edited by his son and translator, Dmitri Nabokov, The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov is a literary event and a celebration of his art.