Evegeny Belodubrovsky, a long-time fixture of the Nabokovian world in St. Petersburg, and an endless font of information, has released his book, Fiuzeliazh babochki: Pamiatnaia knizhka-slovar' (The Butterfly's Fuselage: A Scrapbook-Lexicon). This book contains a massive quantity of visual and documentary material (photos, documents, posters, memorabilia, and more) from across Nabokov's life, as well as his prehistory and his afterlife--both among his family, and among artists and scholars. Even non-readers of Russian will be delighted by the cornucopia of objects presented here. Everything is extensively annotated and enriched with Belodubrovsky's lively storytelling. Included are images of many manuscripts, letters, and rare photographs. A great deal of the material is presented in color. The main text concludes with a long quotation from a conversation with D. Barton (Don) Johnson, stating his core understanding of Nabokov. 411 pp. Includes a name index.
Comments1
Fiuzheliazh babochki
Steve is right: Evgeny Belodubrovsky's new book is a rich contextual resource for Nabokovians, with visual and textual material especially but not only from Russia (before, during, and since Nabokov's time there), including photographs, manuscripts, drawings, pages of published works (books, magazines, newspapers) and commentary. It reminds me of Orhan Pamuk's The Museum of Innocence, with its evocation of a whole phase of Istanbul life. Enjoy! Publisher Renome, St. Petersburg, ISBN 978-5-00125-661-8
Brian Boyd