Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L discussion

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A place for continuing the NABOKV-L discussion online (subscribe)

By thomas_pedrick , 23 September, 2026

Can anyone point me in the direction of any views VN ever expressed about Graham Greene the writer? I am aware of their interactions around the publication of Lolita; there seems to have been some limited correspondence between them plus some later VN observations relating to the Lolita saga, for example in Strong Opinions, and also some mentions in Vera's correspondence (We have travelled thousands of miles, we have made the acquaintance of various writers, from Graham Greene (entertaining) to Moravia (very much less so)).

By zechen_chris_chen , 31 August, 2026

I created this a while ago, and meant to post it once I furnish it better. It's a search engine, for Nabokov's oeuvre. If you were like me, whose mind sometimes teases and tortures its person, its plaything, you, by reminding you of one word, one phrase, whose parental sentence (you know) you know word for word, and whose birth-book (which one?

By morgan_li , 5 May, 2026

Hi everyone, 

I'm so happy to have met so many IVNS members at the Destabilizing Nabokov Conference in Princeton 2 weekends ago.

A few of you asked about the Nabokov-themed T-shirts that I was wearing during the conference. I did make them and they're custom printed. I've been wearing them out and about on my own for the past year and no one has ever gotten the reference ... until the Conference, so imagine my delight!

I've put together a small shop where you can order them: www.nabokoviandesigns.com

By richard_leigh , 27 March, 2026

I've seen a reference to this; but being ignorant of Russian I'm  unable to check for myself. Does anyone know why Nabokov decided to omit it from "Laughter in the Dark", or where it was placed in the original ?

By zechen_chris_chen , 4 March, 2026

Upon studying Pnin, I have encountered a phrase that has not been talked about by the Forum at least in a way that answers my question. I am referring to the titular 'feminine feet', a term used to describe Pnin in the very first paragraph of the eponymous novel.

By henry_stimpson , 2 March, 2026

I'm sure that VN used this phrase somewhere.  "It's hardly a Royce, but it rolls"  I suspect it was either in Pnin or Pale Fire - but maybe an interview. Can't find anything via Google or AI or Nabokovian!  Anyone know? I think it's pretty witty.  

By jonathan_sylbert , 17 February, 2026

Zadie Smith writes in Changing My Mind (2009):

Just before Humbert Humbert meets Mrs. Haze, the mother of the girl who will go on to obsess and destroy him, his gaze falls on “an old gray tennis ball that lay on an oak chest.” This tennis ball has nothing whatsoever to do with the grand themes of Lolita—it “just is,” and in this is beautiful. (208)