Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0001531, Mon, 9 Dec 1996 11:41:13 -0800

Subject
gesticulating Dostoyevsky (fwd)
Date
Body
From: dcpasc0@service1.uky.edu

I have a question about something from *Lectures on Literature*,
specifically the *Bleak House* section. When N says (something very much
like [I don't have the text on me]) "Lady Dedlock is redeemed through
suffering, and Dostoyevsky is seen wildly gesticulating in the background"
did he expect his students to get this allusion? Had he already taught FMD,
so they would understand the context? Did he actually _say_ it? The notes
were in some intermediate on-the-way-to-the-publisher state, right? So was
that line the kind of thing added only later for the reading audience? I
know that N didn't exactly need for his audience to "get" all of his jokes,
but his novels are one thing, and I wondered what he imagined his students
were capable of.

Dustin C. Pascoe
University of Kentucky