Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0015769, Tue, 4 Dec 2007 19:50:38 +0000

Subject
Re: NABOKOV ONLY GRUDGINGLY RESPECTED IT ...
Date
Body
On 1/12/07 07:24, "Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@HOTMAIL.COM> forwarded:

> ANGLICIZING EL INGENIOSO HIDALGO
> NABOKOV ONLY GRUDGINGLY RESPECTED IT, ...
>
> Sandy: hardly a fair summary of VN¹s Lectures on Don Quixote (Harvest/HBJ,
> 1983)?
>
> This deep, detailed critical study (some 200 pages) must be read through
> thoughtfully rather than cherry-picked for the sour sound-bites!
> Fredson Bowers¹ Editor¹s Preface points to VN¹s agreement with Harry Levin¹s
> opinion that DQ Œwas the logical starting point for discussing the development
> of the novel.¹ This helps explain the enormous effort VN devoted to analysing
> this work. Guy Davenport¹s Foreword explains the context for VN¹s reported
> delight in Œtearing apart Don Quixote, a cruel and crude old book, before 600
> students in Memorial Hall, much to the horror and embarrassment of some of my
> more conservative colleagues.¹ Davenport continues, ŒTear it apart he did, for
> good critical reasons, but he also put it back together.¹ (My bold emphasis.)
>
> The opening quotation ends with a puzzling
> BUT DON QUIXOTE IS STILL THE BOOK THAT TRANSLATORS TEST THEMSELVES AGAINST.
>
> That BUT has no opposing, logical disjunction (as any decent BUT deserves)
> between VN¹s Œgrudging¹ respect, and the popular challenge of translating DQ
> into English. Rather, in sweeping away the over-sentimental accretions to
> Cervante¹s characters, VN has increased our interest in the novel. To reshape
> the citation nearer to my desires:
>
> BECAUSE OF NABOKOV¹S BRILLIANT INSIGHTS INTO BOTH DON QUIXOTE AND THE
> CHALLENGES OF TRANSLATION, IT IS NO SURPRISE TO FIND THAT THIS IS STILL THE
> BOOK THAT TRANSLATORS TEST THEMSELVES AGAINST.
>
> Stan Kelly-Bootle
> Curmudgeon column at
> http://acmqueue.org


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