A Guide to Berlin

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"A Guide to Berlin" is a short story by Vladimir Nabokov, first published in 1925. It was later translated by him and his son into English and included in the collection Details of a Sunset and Other Stories (1976).

[edit] Plot summary

In the story the narrator recounts to a friend his trip that day to the zoo. In the short sections--"the Pipes," "The Streetcar," "Work," "Eden," and "the Pub"--he describes the life of the city in vivid detail. In "the Streetcar," he notes that it is the responsibility of literature to "portray ordinary objects as they will be reflected in the kindly mirrors of future times; to find in the objects around us the fragrant tenderness that only posterity will discern and appreciate..."

His friend in the pub pronounces Berlin a "boring, expensive city," and does not understand the narrator’s preoccupation with streetcars, tortoises, or a child’s view from the pub window.

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 • The Original of Laura (unpublished fragment)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