Download PDF of Number 4 (Spring 1980) Vladimir Nabokov Research Newsletter
THE VLADIMIR NABOKOV
RESEARCH NEWSLETTER
Number 4 Spring 1980
________________________________________
CONTENTS
News Items and Work in Progress
by Stephen Jan Parker 3
The 1979 Nabokov Section
by Ellen Pifer 12
Abstract: Marilyn Edelstein, "The Art of
Consciousness: Pale Fire"
(Nabokov Section paper) 14
Abstract: Beverly Lyon Clark, "Contradictions
and Confirmations in Ada:
'Ah, Yes! I Remember It Well'"
(Nabokov Section paper) 17
Nabokov Archives, U.S. Library of Congress 20
Annotations & Queries
by Charles Nicol
Contributors: Julian W. Connolly, Patricia Crown 35
Bibliography
by Stephen Jan Parker
Contributors: Brian Boyd, Jane Grayson,
Gleb Struve, Mary Stuart 39
Note on content:
This webpage contains the full content of the print version of Nabokovian Number 4, except for:
- The annual bibliography (because in the near future the secondary Nabokov bibliography will be encompassed, superseded, and made more efficiently searchable in the bibliography of this Nabokovian website, and the primary bibliography has long been superseded by Michael Juliar’s comprehensive online bibliography).
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NEWS ITEMS AND WORK IN PROGRESS
by Stephen Jan Parker
Mrs. Véra Nabokov notes the following foreign language translations of her husbands' works appearing between October 1979 and February 1980. Full citations will be given in the VNRN annual Nabokov bibliographies .
Spanish - Pale Fire, Ada, A Russian Beauty, Tyrants Destroyed
German - Look at the Harlequins!
French - Despair (second printing), Ada (new printing), Invitation to a Beheading (new printing), A Russian Beauty
Finnish - Transparent Things
Dutch - A Russian Beauty, Tyrants Destroyed, and Details of a Sunset in one volume under the title, Ultima Thule
Mrs. Nabokov also notes that McGraw-Hill will definitely publish Mary, King, Queen, Knave, Ada, and Details of a Sunset this year in paperback issues.
Gleb Struve (1154 Spruce St, Berkeley, CA 94707) gave a lecture, "Vladimir Nabokov as I Knew and as I See Him," at San Francisco State University on February 27. He brings to our attention a most intriguing
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item. In a volume published in Tartu, USSR (1979), entitled Vtorichnye modeliruiu-shchie sistemy (Secondary model systems), is an article by Mikhail Lotman (son of the noted semiotician Yuri Lotman) "Nekotorye zamechaniia о poezii i poetike F. K. Godunova-Cherdyntseva" (Some remarks on the poetry and poetics of F. K. Godunov-Cherdyntsev). In this four-page piece Mr. Lotman offers some close textual analysis of the poetry of this "most interesting and undeservedly forgotten" poet. The name Nabokov does not appear in the article, but there is one parenthetic reference to Dar (The Gift). In this surreptitious manner Mr. Lotman has written what may well be the first critical piece on a Nabokov work published in the USSR.
John Stewart (107 Ivy Dr. #8, Charlottesville, VA 22901) has provided another interesting item from The Current Digest of the Soviet Press. The Soviet reviewer of a bibliography of American literature published in the USSR makes the following comment: "The omission of V. Nabokov's name from the Personalia section is no oversight on the bibliographer's part; it reflects the real state of affairs in our literary criticism. Despite Nabokov's reactionary political views, which naturally require an uncompromising appraisal, it is difficult not to see that he has exerted a significant influence on post-war Western (and not just American) literature. His books, albeit in the form of modernist grotesque, reflect certain fundamental features of late bourgeois civilization. Hence we need a sober critical analysis of his works. This is not to underestimate the
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complexities of such an analysis, but after all we do write about other difficult authors such as Pound and Eliot.
Simon Karlinsky (Slavic Languages & Literatures, Univ. of California, Berkeley 94720) writes that The Nabokov-Wilson Letters will be published in a revised paperback version in the summer of 1980. Revisions have been necessitated by the discovery of misfiled originals and stamped envelopes which have led to correction of some dates. Additional commentary will be added to this new, revised edition.
Earl D. Sampson (Slavic Languages & Literatures , Univ. of Colorado, Boulder 80902) presented a paper, "Games Nabokov's People Play," at the Rocky Mountain MLA Conference in Albuquerque in October.
Anthony Anemone, Jr. will deliver a lecture on Nabokov's Despair to the "Slavic Forum" of the University of Chicago on May 7.
Carl Proffer (Ardis Press, 2901 Heatherway, Ann Arbor, MI 48104) is at work on a general essay/interview on Nabokov for the International Communication Agency's Forum series, "American Writing Today," and on an essay treating immortality and metamorphosis in Invitation to a Beheading.
Ellen Pifer (Dept, of English, Univ. of Delaware, Newark 19711) Writes that Harvard University Press will be publishing her book on Nabokov, tentatively entitled Nabokov and the Novel. It is scheduled for January, 1981 release.
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It was incorrectly implied in the Fall 1979 issue that Dr. Annelore Engel was the translator of the German editions of Ada and Look at the Harlequins!. Her work for Rowohlt publishers has consisted of transcription of Russian words and their integration into the texts of some of Nabokov's novels.
Beverly Clark (English Department, Wheaton College, Norton, Mass 02766) presented a paper, "Nabokov's Assault on Wonderland," at the Twentieth-Century Russian Literature Section of the NEMLA in March. She has also completed a review of Field's, Grayson's, Hyde's and Stuart's recent books on Nabokov.
Ardis Press announces the availability of the following Russian titles by Nabokov (some available in both hardcover and paperback editions): Vesna v Fialte, Vozvrashchenie Chorba, Dar, Drugie berega, Zashchita Luzhina, Kamera Obskura, Korol’, dama, valet, Lolita, Mashen'ka, Otchaianie, Podvig, Priglashenie na kazn', Stikhi, Sogliadatai.
Holdan Books (15 North Parade Avenue, Oxford, England) announces the availability of An English-Russian Dictionary of Nabokov's Lolita by A.D. Nakhimovsky and V.A. Paperno. They note: "Nabokov's Russian Lolita is a rare example of an author's translation of his own book into his own native language. Nabokov was also a major theorist of translation, and this dictionary codifies his own practice, listing every word and idiom in Lolita which is
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translated into Russian not in the way prescribed by the two major English-Russian dictionaries (Smirnitsky, Oxford). The thousands of new finds he made show a richness of language unknown by academic lexicographers."
Tim Gorelangton (Special Collections, University Library, University of Nevada-Reno 89557) brings to the attention of bibliophiles the curious existence of three different variants or states of the hardcover first edition of The Eye published by Phaedra. Mr. Gorelangton discovered the oddity in conjunction with his work on the Nabokov holdings in The Modern Authors Collection of the University of Nevada-Reno. According to their flyer, the Collection "consists of books and other materials by certain poets and writers of fiction writing in English who began their careers or became known after approximately 1910. … The primary purpose of the collection is to provide materials for textual and bibliographical research. It is the aim to collect all these authors' works in all editions, including translations, especially those published during the authors' lifetimes. Materials of all kinds, whether literary or not, are included. … Bibliographies of authors on the list are maintained as part of the collection, but critical works about them ... are not."
Publication of Nabokov's Lectures on Literature: First Series is now planned by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich/Bruccoli Clark for September 1980. A detailed description appeared in Newsletter #3. Uncorrected
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proofs are now circulating, and it is our understanding that portions of the book will appear initially in Esquire.
In addition to the Library of Congress holdings listed in VNRN #3 and in this issue, other unique Nabokoviana are housed at the Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas. Our initial information is that the Texas holdings are primarily related to Nabokov's work in lepidoptery. We hope to provide a detailed account in a future issue.
Samuel Schuman has provided Nabokovphiles with two needed bibliographic works. The first, a Selected Checklist of Nabokov Criticism, appears in the Autumn 1979 issue of Modern Fiction Studies, a special number of the journal devoted to Vladimir Nabokov. The checklist is in two parts — general studies and specific works. The latter section carries headings for each of the novels, Nabokov's Poetry, Nabokov's Stories, Nabokov's Plays, Nabokov's Essays and Criticism, Speak, Memory, Eugene Onegin, and Nabokov's Translation of Alice in Wonderland. Entries under each heading are subdivided by (1) references back to the general studies listing and (2) items dealing specifically with the particular work. The Checklist should prove to be a handy and useful guide for students and others with a general interest in Nabokov criticism.
Those who seek a fuller, annotated bibliography can, however, consult Professor S chuman's recently published Vladimir Nabokov: A Reference Guide (G.K. Hall, 1979).
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The volume (214 pages) is divided into introduction, selected primary sources, a chronological list of major primary works, writings about Vladimir Nabokov, three appendices, and an index.
The introductory chapter offers a brief summary of Nabokov's career; some comments on the variety of writings on Nabokov (casual citations, news stories, studies of specific themes, general studies, as well as reviews and studies of specific works); a number of remarks on the evolution of Nabokov criticism; and a listing of the kinds of materials included in the annotated bibliography (all critical articles and books dealing exclusively or largely with Nabokov in English; a wide selection of works in foreign languages; a large sample of reviews and news stories; Ph.D. dissertations and a few M.A. theses).
The bulk of the volume is an annotated bibliography, "Writings About Vladimir Nabokov," presented chronologically by year of publication. The first heading lists fifteen items — a highly selective group of works written in various languages — published 1931-1956. There then follow headings for each year, 1957-1977. With few exceptions, each citation is annotated. The annotations indicate works under discussion and the writer’s approach and opinions. The system of notation is simple and useful. Items are numerically designated in consecutive order under each heading. Cross-references are provided as necessary. Each page carries a year designation in the upper corner so that the reader does not have to leaf back to the first entry in order to dis-
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cover in which year a given item appears.
The organization of the bibliography by year provides the reader with a good sense of the shifts in quantity and direction of attention given to Nabokov's writings: the hubbub surrounding Lolita, the interest in his English works and the subsequent discovery of his Russian works, the growth of book-length studies in the 1970's, as well as the growth in the number of doctoral dissertations .
The first appendix is an annotated, select list of reviews of Stanley Kubrick's screen version of Lolita. The second appendix has seven annotated reviews of Tony Richardson's 1969 movie of Laughter in the Dark, Appendix III is a checklist of Russian émigré criticism (49 items) which is incomplete and suffers from some unfortunate confusion due to the system of Russian-English transliteration employed.
An especially useful feature of the volume is the index, which provides entries for each of Nabokov's major primary works as well as author entries. The index, moreover, has a number of subject entries (eg, chess, butterflies), entries by major characters' names (eg, Cincinnatus, Quilty, Shade), and some general entries (eg, Nabokov's poetry, stories). The all-inclusiveness of any subject, character, and general entry heading is necessarily dependent upon the thoroughness of the individual annotations which carry the key reference words.
It is abundantly clear that there is now a substantial body of writing on Nabokov,
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and Professor Schuman's Reference Guide should prove to be an indispensable aid to all Nabokov scholars. As work goes forward one hopes that it will be regularly updated and expanded.
In issue No. 3 there were several typographical mistakes in "Notes to Vivian Dark-bloom's 'Notes to Ada'" and "Ada's 'Dream-Delta': A Query," by J. E. Rivers and William Walker. Following is a list of the errata:
p. 34, 1. 19: for Hammondsworth read Harmondsworth
p. 34, 1. 28. for Ada," read Ada,"'
p. 38, 1. 22: for Fenouil read fenouil
p. 38, 1. 34: for tappete read tapette
p. 39, 1. 26: for O'Neill read O'Neil
p. 39, 1. 10: for (1961) read (1961)
p. 41, 1. 5: for 1967 read 1969
p. 41, 1. 6: for are read any
The Newsletter would like to acknowledge and thank the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences of the University of Kansas for its continuing support of this publication.
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THE 1979 NABOKOV SESSION
by Ellen Pifer, Program Director
Members of the Vladimir Nabokov Society met on Sunday morning, December 29, in the San Francisco Hilton, to hear the fourth annual program devoted to Vladimir Nabokov. The following panelists participated: Paul S. Bruss, English—Eastern Michigan University; Beverly Lyon Clark, English--Wheaton College; Marilyn Edelstein, English—State University of New York at Buffalo; and, acting as discussant to the panelists, Samuel Schuman, Honors Center—University of Maine at Orono.
Because of the MLA's failure to approve the program as a Special Session, the meeting this year was not advertised in the official program. An announcement did appear in the previous issue of the Vladimir Nabokov Research Newsletter, and a flyer was distributed and posted in the various MLA hotels. Attendance at the meeting was not, therefore, as large as last year's MLA Special Session; but the liveliness of the presentations and of the audience's response to the issues raised was remarked, and enjoyed, by all. One recurring issue—the complex and often elusive relationship between alleged "fact" and obvious "fiction" in Nabokov's universe—will be directly addressed by next year's proposed MLA Special Session. Entitled "Biographical and Autobiographical Motifs in the Prose of Vladimir Nabokov," the 1980 Session, to be conducted by Samuel Schuman, promises to take up
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where the 1979 program left off. Those wishing to submit papers or abstracts should write to Dr. Schuman at the Honors Center, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469.
The business meeting of the Vladimir Nabokov Society was held following the end of the session. Members in attendance ratified the Society's By-laws, which were printed in the Fall 1979 issue of the VNRN. Stephen Parker spoke briefly about the fine reception of the Newsletter and the need to increase the number of library and foreign subscribers. Some discussion was given to future activities of the Society and actions to be taken to insure the granting of "Affiliated Organization" status by the MLA.
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ABSTRACT
"The Art of Consciousness: Pale Fire"
by Marilyn Edelstein
(Abstract of the paper presented at the meeting of the Nabokov Society, San Francisco, December 30, 1979.)
Pale Fire is the supreme manifestation of the indivisibility of style and meaning in the work of Vladimir Nabokov. The novel's narrative consciousness, plot, and structure, as well as its ultimate significance, can only be discerned through the reader's own efforts; the novel thus becomes a paradigm of Roland Barthes' reader-created text. By placing the fictional process in the foreground of a novel, where the narrative human presence once was, Nabokov forces the reader to examine the similarity between fictional creation and self-creation.
The characters in Pale Fire are intentionally composite, in name and in identity; all characters have multiple possible relations to other characters and to the events in the novel. Although some critics think Nabokov has set up an elaborate puzzle whose solution requires definitively separating and then setting up a hierarchy of the characters, it is ultimately irrelevant if "in fact" Kinbote has produced Shade and Zembla, or if Shade has produced Kinbote and the rest. Within the fiction, the characters are equally real, and they all only exist in words. Shade comes the closest to seeming like the fictional equivalent of a man, yet the part of the
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book that manifests his identity, his poem, exists in the text surrounded by the words of another man. Shade's "editor," Kinbote, is imaginative (to excess), fantastic, Dionysiac, and thus presents an appropriate counterpoint to Shade's orderly, sublime, rational character. Gradus is an unconscious killing device, a fictional tool, but he is also an embodiment of the darkness of death against which the artist struggles. Analysis of the character's names and of the lines in Timon of Athens from whence the title derives reveals the essential and symbiotic interlinking of the characters.
Standing over all his inferior creations is the artificer god, Nabokov, playing a "game of worlds" with his creations. Nabokov's is the controlling, unifying consciousness in the novel; in that functional sense, Nabokov's is the ultimate self of this book. The essential point about Nabokov's playful authorial omnipotence is that the trickery serves a function beyond mere aesthetic pleasure. The patterning that Shade seeks in life we can discover in the book—but we must at least help to create it. In Pale Fire, we see the different "webs of sense" that can be created from the same set of events by different minds. Nabokov believes that seeing one static view of reality, perceiving facts without imagination, is like death (and like Gradus). Since deception is an integral part of nature (as with Nabokov's beloved mimetic butterflies), a writer who calls attention to the deceptive potential of the world is doing the reader a service. Pale Fire is, in Kinbote's words, an assault on our "brutish routine acceptance" of the
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"miracle of a few written signs being able to contain immortal imagery, involutions of thought, new words with live people, speaking, weeping, laughing." Pale Fire's amazing articulateness is part of an aesthetic reordering and re-creation of reality through artifice, and it is, finally, a consciousness-altering fiction.
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ABSTRACT
"Contradictions and Confirmations in Ada: 'Ah, Yes! I Remember It Well'"
by Beverly Lyon Clark
(Abstract of the paper presented at the meeting of the Nabokov Society, San Francisco, December 30, 1979.)
A number of critics, including Bobbie Ann Mason in Nabokov's Garden: A Guide to Ada, consider Van Veen an unreliable narrator. They note, for instance, how Antiterra distorts our familiar "real" world. Yet the fact that Nabokov takes liberties with our "real" world does not mean that Van does. Despite inconsistent details, alternate accounts, and disagreements with Ada, Van still seems fundamentally honest in presenting the facts of his world.
Van's details are inconsistent when, for instance, he indicates modes of transportation. Does he arrive at Ardis by horse or hackney coach? Does he leave by motor-car or horse? Yet the inconsistency is limited to details—the fact that Van arrived at or left Ardis is not questioned.
Van provides the most clearly articulated alternate account when describing how some not-entirely-sane people consider Antiterra and Terra the same, implying that Van's Antiterra is a fabrication. While these paragraphs may raise a few questions, the impact of the rest of the book supports the
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basic truth of what Van relates. Here as elsewhere Nabokov teases us with a hint of uncertainty, so that we may be only 97 percent certain of Van's honesty (much as Van claims that Ada is 97 percent true).
Finally, there are Van's disagreements with Ada. Like the aging lovers in Gigi who sing "Ah, Yes! I Remember It Well," Van and Ada disagree about details but agree on substance—on how in love they were. They may disagree about what Ada was wearing when he first met her or about what exactly happened in the shattal tree, but that they did meet and that they kissed their first kiss are not at issue. And even if the shattal tree was not the Tree of Knowledge, imported from the Eden National Park—at least not literally so—it was metaphorically Edenic. In fact, the insignificance of Van and Ada’s disagreements (largely concerning details, tone, phrasing), together with the fact that Ada does not question larger issues, actually reinforces the fundamental accuracy of what Van writes. And Van and Ada's ability to take turns relating such pivotal episodes as that of the Burning Barn further supports Van's accuracy. Moreover, his willingness to admit Ada's comments, far from undermining his reliability, actually augments it: if instead Van had shown Ada as entirely agreeing with him, we might then consider her merely a creature of his imagination . Van's memory, like ours, may thus distort details, but, as Nabokov has noted in an interview, "the distortion of a remembered image may not only enhance its beauty with an added refraction, but provide informative links with earlier or later patches of the past" (Strong Opinions, p.143).
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Like other contemporary novelists, Nabokov forces us to re-evaluate the nature of reality. Is there an objective reality? Is there a commonly agreed upon sense of Terra? Or is Nabokov right--that "the bare facts do not exist in a state of nature, for they are never really quite bare" (Nikolai Gogol, p.119)? Contemporary novelists would agree with Nabokov, for our so-called objective versions of reality are really colored by subjective perceptions. And perhaps it is more realistic not to pretend to any objective reality but to admit the subjectivity of all experience.
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NABOKOV PAPERS——U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
We are pleased to present to our readers the complete listing, by container number, of all Nabokov papers held in the U.S. Library of Congress.
Container No. 1
Ms. of Pale Fire, 1029 index cards (English).
Container No. 2
a) Ms. of Lolita: A Screenplay, on index cards (English). With some alternates and long insertions.
b) Ms. notes for Lolita. 94 index cards (English).
c) Ms. notes for Conclusive Evidence. 2 pp. and 50 index cards (English).
Container No. 3
a) Ms. of Priglashenie na kazn' , 213 pp. (Russian).
b) Ts. of Invitation to a Beheading, (Priglashenie na kazn'), translation by Dmitri Nabokov, with VN's pencil changes, 365 pp.
c) Ts. of Invitation to a Beheading, setting copy, [8] + 233 pp. With VN's corrections. With French translation of foreword, "Preface à l'édition anglaise," corrected by VN.
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d) Galley proofs of Invitation to a Beheading, corrected by VN.
Container No. 4
a) Ms. and some ts., The Song of Igor's Campaign, draft of introduction and notes, 110 pp. (English).
b) Mimeographed ts., The Discourse of Igor's Campaign, 10 pp.
c) Ms. notebook, The Song of Igor's Campaign, translation and notes, 90 pp.
d) Ms. corrections to galleys of The Song of Igor's Campaign, 13 index cards. In VN's and Vera Nabokov's hands.
e) Ts., The Song of Igor's Campaign, 141 pp. With ms., Pedigree of Russian Territorial Princes, lp., and ms.. Map, 1 p.
Ts., 9 pp. Queries to foreword, with VN's pencil replies.
f) Galley proofs, The Song of Igor's Campaign, with VN's corrections.
g) Ts. of Eugene Onegin, translation into English, in two binders (240 pp. + 182 pp.), with ms. notes.
h) Ms., 8 pp., and ts., 13 pp., of Pushkin's Notes to EO. Ts., 9 pp., General queries on Text words, with VN's pencil replies.
i) Ms. translations from Eugene Onegin and The Bronze Rider, index cards (15 sides), and envelope.
j) Ts. and ms., Abram Gannibal (appendix to Eugene Onegin). (English) .
Container No. 5
a) Ms. 106 pp. and ts., 7 pp., of The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. Incomplete (ends in Ch. 17).
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b) Ts., The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, 9 pp., with additions in Vera N's hand.
c) Ms. notes for Conclusive Evidence, 12 pp., 14 index cards.
Ts., 1 p. discarded introduction to Conclusive Evidence.
d) Ms. and ts. of Conclusive Evidence, Chs. 1 (with early notes), 2~, 8 (with earlier draft and notes), 10 (ts.), 11 (ts., and earlier ms, and notes), 12 (ms. and ts.), 15 (ms., index cards). With ms. draft of letter to New Yorker about ch. 1, 5 index cards.
e) Ts., of projected sixteenth ch. of Conclusive Evidence (disguised as review of the book), 18 pp.
f) Ms. of Drugie berega (Conclusive Evidence), 178 pp. Chs. 1-3, 7, 10, 12, 14.
g) Ms. of Bend Sinister, in folder, 272 sheets (317 pp. written on). (English).
Container No. 6
a) Ms. of ch. 1 of Dar (The Gift), 90 pp. (Russian).
b) Printed pages of Sovremenniya Zapiski version of Dar, chs. 1-3 and 5, corrected by VN and used as setting copy (Russian).
c) Ts. of ch. 4 of Dar, with ms. corrections; used as setting copy, 108 pp. (Russian). With ms., 1 p., of bibliographical note, in Vera Nabokov's hand.
d) Ms., exercise book, unpublished drafts and notes for Dar continuations, 31 pp., with draft of Rusalka continuation, 5 pp. (Russian).
e) Ms., unpublished "second addition" to Dar, 54 pp. (Russian).
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f) Ts., unpublished second addition to Dar, 5 pp. (incomplete). (Russian)
g) Ms., Podvig (Glory), 278 pp. (Russian).
h) Ms., of Tragediya Gospodina Morna (The Tragedy of Mister Morn), Act I Scene I (14 pp.), Act II (19 pp.), fair copy. (Russian).
i) Ms., notes for Tragediya Gospodina Morna, narrative of Act I. 1-3, Act 2. 1-3, Act 3. 1-3, Act 4. 1-3 [Act 4. 2 mistakenly labelled "III-II"], 24 pp. (Russian).
j) Ms., notes for Tragediya Gospodina Morna, 5 pp.
k) Ts. of Tragediya Gospodina Morna, fair copy, 107 pp. (Russian).
l) Ts., of Nikolay Gogol, partial French translation corrected by VN.
m) Ts., of The Defense, Michael Scammell's translation of Zashchita Luzhina, with VN's corrections, 239 pp. (English).
n) Ts., of Der Pol, Rausch yon Traubenberg's translation of Polyus (The Pole) 11 pp. (German)
o) Ms. of Catastrophe, Jarl Priel's translation of Sobitie (The Event) 2 exercise books (French).
p) Ms., of Izobretenie Val'sa (The Waltz Invention) , 123 pp. (Russian).
Container No. 7
a) Ts., of "Mirage", French translation of "Ozero, oblako, bashnya" ("Cloud, Castle, Lake"), 13 pp.
b) Ms., of "Mademoiselle O", 32 pp. (English).
c) Ts., of "Le Vrai et le vraisemblable", 23 pp., with 3 ms. pp of translations from Pushkin. (French).
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d) Ms., of "Natasha", 15 pp. (Russian).
e) Ms., draft of "Draka", beginning "Po utram, esli solntse priglashalo menya ...", 4 pp. (Russian).
f) Ts., of "Rozhdestvenskiy rasskaz" ("A Christmas Story"), 7 pp. (Russian).
g) Ms. of "Britva" ("The Razor"), draft, 7 pp. (Russian).
h) Ms. of "Britva" ("The Razor"), fair copy, 8 pp. (Russian).
i) Ms. of "Govoryat po russki" ("They speak Russian"), 17 pp. (Russian).
j) Ts. of "Govoryat po russki" ("They speak Russian"), 10 pp. (Russian).
k) Ms., draft of Bibliographical Note for Nabokov's Dozen, 2 pp. (English).
l) Ms. of "That in Aleppo Once...", 16 pp. (English).
m) Ms. of "Double Talk", 13 pp. (English).
n) Ms. of "The Assistant Producer", 22 pp. (English).
o) Ms. of "The Double Monster", 14 pp. (English).
p) Ms. of "The Vane Sisters", 59 index cards. (English).
q) Ms. of "Vesna v Fial'te" ("Spring in Fialta"), 26 pp. (Russian).
r) Ms. of "Ozero, oblako, bashnya" ("Cloud, Castle, Lake"), with pages from Sovremenniya Zapiski version. (Russian).
s) Ms. of "Nabor" ("Recruitment"), 6 pp. (Russian).
t) Ms. of "Lik", 32 pp, with Russkie Zapiski version (Russian).
u) Clipping of "Korolyok" ("The Leonardo"), 2 sheets, (Russian).
v) Clipping of "Tyazholyy dym" ("Torpid Smoke"), 1 sheet. (Russian).
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w) Clipping of "Nabor" ("Recruitment"), 1 sheet.
x) Printed pages of "Poseshchenie muzeya" ("The Visit to the Museum"). (Russian).
y) Ms. of Schast'e (Happiness), numbered pp. 1-66 (some missing), chs. 1-7. (Russian).
[This is not a story but the beginning of the novel Mashen'ka]
z) Ms. of Mashen'ka (Mary), in notebook, chs. 9-end, 105 pp. (Russian).
aa) Ms. of "Zanyatoy chelovek", ("A Busy Man"), 18 pp. (Russian). bb)Ms. of "Zanyatoy chelovek", second draft, 14 pp. (Russian), cc) Ms. of "Obida" ("A bad day"), 9 pp. (Russian).
dd) Ms. of "Pil'gram" ("The Aurelian"), 24 pp. (Russian).
ее) Ms. of "Pil'gram" (here entitled "Palomnik"), 23 pp. (Russian).
ff) Printed copy of "Pil'gram", with VN's ms. notes for English translation.
gg )Ms. of "Ograda" ["Muzyka"] ("Music"), 8 pp. (Russian).
hh) Ms. of "Sluchay iz zhizni" ("A Slice of Life"), 7 pp. (Russian).
ii) Ms. of "Pismo v Rossiyu" ("A Letter that Never Reached Russia"), 4 pp. [incomplete]. (Russian).
jj) Ms. of "Podlets" ("An Affair of Honor"), 50 pp. (Russian).
kk) Ms. of "Passazhir" ("The Passenger"), 9 pp. (Russian).
ll) Ms. of Otchayanie (Despair), 148 pp. (Russian).
Container No. 8
Folder 1: Poems in English
1) "Diner Littéraire", ts., 1 p.
2) "Rain", ms., 1 p.
3) "The Room", ts., 1 p.
4) "Dandelions", ts., 1 p.
5) "Farewell Party" ["Softest of Tongues"], ts., 1 p.
6) "Dream", ts., 1 p.
7) "Mr N. on Russian Poetry", ms., 4 pp.
8) "Mr N. on Russian Poetry", ts., 3 pp.
9) "A War Poem", ts., lp.
10) "Voluptates Tactionum", ms., 2 pp.
11) "The Ballad of Longwood Glen", ms., 3 pp.
12) "The poem", ms., 1 p.
13) "Speaking of Bugs" ["A Discovery"], ms., 1 p.
14) ms., 2 pp., part of Conclusive Evidence.
15) "The Monkey" (trans. from Khodasevich), 2 pp. with drafts of "Note on Khodasevich", 2 pp.
16) "Ode to a Model", ms., index card.
Folder 2: Poems in Russian
1) "To Prince S.M. Kachurin", ts., 4 pp. (annotated translation).
2) "Pyaniy korabl'". Two mss., each. 5 pp. each.
3) "Kakim-by polotnom … ms., index card.
4) "Odnazhdy my podvecher oba ... " ms., 1 p.
5) "Stansy о loshadi", ms., 1 p.
6) "Son", ms., 2 pp.
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7) "Noch v sadu...", ms., Ip.
8) "Muka", ms., 1 p.
9) "Ot schastiya vlyublyonnomu ne spitsya", ms., 1 p.
10) "Na zakate, u toy-zhe skam'i", ms., 1 p.
11) "Tol'ko pomnyu kholodnost' vashu", ms., 1 p.
12) "Iskusstvo i groza" (Ne pravilnye yamby), ms., 1 p.
13) "Poeti (Iz komnati...)" ms., 2 pp.
14) "Na zakate" and "Moyu ladon"', ms., 1 p.
15) "Otvyazhis' ... ya tebya umolyayu", ms., 1 p.
16) "My s toboyu tak verili ...", ms., 1 p.
17) "Chto za noch'...", ms., 1 p.
18) "Odnazhdy my podvecher oba...", ms., 1 p.
19) "Perina", ms., 1 p.
20) "Ves'na" ("Pomchal na dachu..."), ms., 1 p.
21) "Kogda vesennee mechtan'e," ms., 1 p.
22) "Shakhmatnyy kon"', ms., 2 pp.
23) "Dar", ms., 1 p.
24) "Rusalka", ms., 3 pp.
Folder 3:
1) "Shakhmatnyy kon'", ts., 2 pp.
2) "Ostrova", ts., 1 p.
3) "Eshcho temno...", ts., 1 p.
4) "Vozdushniy ostrov", ts., 1 p.
5) "V miru fotograf. . . ", ts., 1 p.
6) "Formula", ts., 1 p.
7) "Okno (Sosednyy dom...)" ts., 1 p.
8) "Ot schastiya vlyublyonnomu ne spitsya. .ts., 1 p.
9) "Nerodivshemusya chitatelyu", ts., 1 p.
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10) "V listve beryozovoy, osinovoy", ts., 1 p.
11) "Na zakate" and "Moyu ladon'", ts., 1 p.
12) "Snoviden'e - (Budil’niku...)", ts., 1 p.
13) "Stansy" (Nichem ne smoesh'...), ts., 1 Р-
14) "Smert"' (Utikhnet zhizni rokot zhadnyy), ts,. 1 p.
15) "Provans", ts., 1 p.
16) "Pustyak - nazvan'e machty...", ts., 1 p.
17) "Moya dusha, za smert'yu dalney", ts., 1 p.
18) "Sneg" (O etot zvuk'...), ts., 1 p. 2 copies.
19) "Eshcho temno. V orkestre stesneni. . .", ts., 1 p.
20) "Zhgli anglichane.. ", ts., 1 p.
21) "Rusalka", ts., 3 pp.
22) "Kakim by polotnom...", ts., 1 p.
23) "Sam treugol'nyy..", ts., 1 p.
24) "Probuzhdenie", ts., 1 p.
25) "Snimok", ts., 1 p.
26) "Iz Kalmbrudovoy poemi 'Nochnoe Puteschestvie'," ts., 3 pp.
27) "Oblaka", ts., 1 p.
28) "Rasstrel", ts., 1 p.
29) "K Rodine (Noch' dana...)", ts., 1 p.
30) "K Otchizne /Obrashchenie/ (Otvyazhis' ... ya tebya umolyayu!)", ts., 1 p.
31) "Nepravilnye Yambi", ts., 1 p.
32) "Prokhozhiy s yolkoy", ts., 1 p.
33) "Gadan'e", ts., 1 p.
Folder 4:
poems, notes and schematizations in notebook entitled "Stikhi i Skhemi"
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Folder 5:
"Recital in New York (with poems) in the early fifties". Ms., 14 pp., and ts., 12 pp., of introductory remarks.
Folder 6:
1) ts., of broadcast of A. Nazaroff's review of Bend Sinister, Voice of America, 9/6/47, 10 pp,. 2 copies.
2) ts., of interview by Nathalie Shahovskoy, Voice of America, 5/14/58, 11 pp.
Folder 7:
1) "Vozzvanie о pomoshchi" ("Call for help"), ms., 1 p.
2) "The innocence of Hilaire Belloc", ms., 3 pp.
3) "Opredeleniya" ("Definitions"), ts., 4 pp.
4) "Pis'mo v redaktsiyu" (Letter to the Editor), clipping from Novoe Russkoe Slovo.
Folder 8: Book Review:
Ms., 10 pp. of "Cabbage Soup and Cavier".
Folder 9: Book Reviews by Nabokov:
1) Pageant of England (1840-1940), by Arthur Bryant, ts., 4 pp.
2) Faint Rose by John Rothenstein, ts., 4 pp.
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3) The Guillotine at Work, by G.P. Maximoff, ts., 3 pp.
4) "Sickle, Hammer and Gun": The Guillotine at Work, by G.P. Maximoff, ts., 3 pp.
5) Shakespeare and Democracy by Alwin Thaler and Shakespeare’s Audience by Alfred Harbage, ts., 8 pp.
6) "Mr. Williams’ Shakespeare": Mr. Shakespeare of the Globe by Frayne Williams, ts., 3 pp.
7) "Crystal and Ruby": The Knight in the Tiger's Skin by Shot'ha Rust'hveli, ts., 3 pp.
8) "Mr. Mansfield [sic] and Clio": Basilissa, by John Masefield, ts., 4 pp.
9) "Mr. Lifar goes too far": Serghe Diaghilev, by Lifar, ts., 3 pp.
10) Slava Bohu, The Story of the Dukhobors, by J.F.C. Wright, ts., 3 pp.
Folder 10:
1) ts., 1 p. Notes on "Gardens and Parts", with VIST's replies.
2) ms., 2 pp. notes for Pnin's life.
3) ms., notes on "The Assistant Producer", 14 index card sides.
4) ms., 1 p. exam questions
5) Galley, 1 p., of "The Return of Pushkin", programme note for Nicholas Nabokov's Elegy for high voice and Orchestra, with VN's translation of Pushkin's "Vnov1 у a posetil...".
Folder 11:
1) ms., 11 pp., lecture on style (for Creative Writing course).
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2) ms., notes, 10 pp. on short stories (for Creative Writing course).
Folder 12:
1) ms., fragment of Korol', dama, valet (King, Queen, Knave), 14 pp.
2) ms., fragment of Kamera obskura (Laughter in the Dark), 9 pp.
3) ms., two fragments of Zashchita Luzhina (The Defense), 20 pp.
Folder 13:
General correspondence, 1923-1936, 25 items.
Folder 14:
General correspondence, 1937-1938, 32 items.
Folder 15:
General correspondence, 1939-1943 and undated, 36 items.
Folder 16:
Special correspondence, 1935-1938, 73 items.
Correspondence with Mrs. Altagracia de Jannelli, agent for Nabokov from 1926-194?; rejection slips from American, publishers; correspondence between her and Nabokov's first American publisher, Bobbs-Merrill.
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Folder 17:
Special correspondence, 25 items. Correspondence with Aldanov, Khodasevich, Lukash, and other writers and poets. Also a few autographs.
Folder 18:
Special correspondence, 10 items.
1) Letters of recommendation, including those from Nikolas Berdiaeff and Ivan Bunin.
2) Letters of appointment.
Folder 19:
1) Passport, immigration questionnaire
2) Cambridge diploma
Folder 20:
1) ts., "Spring in Fialta" (Peter Pertzoff's translation of "Vesna v Fial'te"), heavily revised by VN, 31 pp.
2) ts., "Cloud, Castle, Lake" (Peter Pertzoff's translation of "Ozero, oblako, bashny a"), heavily revised by VN, 10 pp. With 1 p. ms. in VN's hand of song from "Cloud, Castle, Lake".
3) Ts., of "Cloud, Castle, Lake", 11 pp., with some notes in Vera Nabokov's hand.
Folder 21:
8 letters and 3 cards to Peter Pertzoff, 1933-44 (Russian and 1 in English).
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Folder 22:
20 Items of Correspondence with Alta-gracia de Jannelli (mostly copies of rejection slips), 1939, 1940, 1942.
Container No. 9
a) page proofs of Eugene Onegin translation with VN's corrections.
b) ts., "Method of Transliteration", with VN's notes, 6 pp.
c) ts., "The Publication of Eugene Onegin" and "Pushkin's Autographs", with VN's notes, 42 pp.
d) ts., commentary on Preliminaries, Chapter One and Chapter Two I-XVII, with VN's notes
Container No. 10
Ts., commentary on Chapter Two XVII-Chapter Seven, Onegin's Album, with VN's notes.
Container No. 11
a) Ts., commentary on Chapter Seven, Onegin's Album - Chapter Eight - LI, with VN's notes.
b) Photocopy ts., retyped version, commentary, One LI - Five XVII, with VN's changes.
Container No. 12
a) Photocopy ts., retyped version. Five XVII - Ten.
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b) Ts., of translation of Notes to Eugene Onegin, Onegin's Journey, and Chapter Ten, with VN's changes.
c) Ts., of Abram Gannibal, with VN's changes, pp. 1-32.
Container No. 13
Ts. of Abram Gannibal, pp. 32-86, with VN's changes.
Ts., on Structure of EO, Genesis of EO, Pushkin on EO, with VN's changes. Ts. Photocopy of re-typed version of preliminaries and Notes On Prosody.
Container No. 14
Corrected galley proofs for Eugene Onegin.
Container No. 15
Editorial queries concerning Eugene Onegin from Bart Winer, William McGuire and Ruth Mathewson, with VN's replies.
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ANNOTATIONS & QUERIES
by Charles Nicol
(Material for this section should be sent to Charles Nicol, English Department, Indiana State University, Terre Haute 47809.
Please note: The deadlines for submission of items are September 1 for the Fall issue arid March 1 for the Spring issue. Unless specifically stated otherwise, references to Nabokov's works will be to the most recent hardcover U. S. editions.)
The Real Life of Zhorzhik Uranski
Zhorzhik Uranski, the author of a "shameless rave" of Liza Bogolepov's poetry in Pnin, is identified by the narrator only as "an influential literary critic" among the Russians living in Paris (p. 45). Considering the literary milieu of the Russian émigrés in Paris in the 1920's and 1930's, it is likely that this figure represents a Nabokovian reference to the noted critic Georgii Adamovich. "Zhorzhik" is a Russian diminutive for George (as pronounced in French), and Uranski may contain an ironic twist on Adamovich's surname. Adam, according to the Bible, was created by God out of dust from the earth as the first man, the father of the human race. According to Hesiod, Uranus ("Uran" in Russian) held a similar position in the race of the gods: he was born of Gaea, the Earth, and subsequently mated with her to sire Cronos, the father of Zeus. Yet while Adam went on to live out
[36]
his life in peace, Uranus met a less fortunate fate: he was castrated by Cronos as he sought to lie again on Gaea. [In Glory, "Uran" comes up in a different context: the homosexual Archibald Moon is described as having an "addiction to uranism" (P. 97). However, since Georgii Adamovich was also apparently homosexual, with a preference for "French sailors" (Field, Nabokov: His Life in Part, p. 30), this additional "Uran" reference seems to strengthen the identification. —CN]
The transformation of Adamovich into Uranski may seem a bit severe, but it perhaps reflects the tenor of the relationship between Nabokov and Adamovich. Andrew Field provides an interesting account in Nabokov: His Life in Part, but of more relevance to Pnin are the two writers' contrasting views on the concept of quality in poetry. Adamovich believed that emotional sincerity and directness were generally of greater importance in a lyric work than formal considerations. As the émigré literary historian Gleb Struve put it in Russkaia literatura v izgnanii (New York: Izd. Imeni Chekhova, 1956), "To Adamovich the best in Parisian poetry seemed to be embodied in the verse of those poets who tried to talk with the utmost simplicity and naked truth about that which stung them most, without worrying about craftsmanship or form. The superiority of intimate, diary-like poetry over well-made works of poetic art was proclaimed" (p. 220).
Leading the opposition to this view among the Russian emigres was Vladislav Khodasevich, whom Nabokov once charac-
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terized unabashedly as "the greatest Russian poet that the twentieth century has yet produced" (The Gift, p. 10). Khodasevich maintained that sincere emotion alone was insufficient to transform verse into art and he instructed young writers, "Gentlemen, write good poetry" (Struve, p. 221). Nabokov sided with Khodasevich's position, and in an article written on the occasion of Khodasevich's death he stated, "even the most purs sanglots require a perfect knowledge of prosody, language, verbal equipoise; … the poetaster intimating in slatternly verse that art dwindles to nought in the face of human suffering is indulging in coy deceit" ("On Khodasevich," TriQuarterly, 27, No. 1, p. 85). This characterization may be aptly applied to Liza Bogolepov's poetic work, about which Uranski had written so glowingly.
The Adamovich presence in Pnin possibly extends beyond the figure of Uranski. The first name and patronymic of one of Liza's Parisian lovers, Dr. Barakan, is Georgiy Aramovich (p. 185), and the name of her latest lover, she reveals in an atrocious poem that parodies Akhmatova's work, is again Georgiy (p. 56). Perhaps here Nabokov has brought to life Adamovich's figurative "embrace" of the emotional in art.
—Julian W. Connolly, Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia
Note on ADA
I am particularly interested in Nabokov's references to artists and paintings,
[38]
especially in Ada. In this regard the work of Otto Van Veen (1556-1629) offers a good many clues. Bobbie Mason cites Van Veen as a Flemish flower painter. However, he was best known in the 17th century for his Amorum Emblemata, a collection of engraved emblems in which various aspects of love are symoblized through the actions of naked children in a kind of landscape garden. There are numerous references to the arrows of love, torches, moths burning in the flames of love, and gathering honey (which was always served at breakfast at Ardis).
—Patricia Crown, Department of Art History, University of Missouri-Columbia