Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0027505, Wed, 6 Sep 2017 13:19:26 -0400

Subject
Re: A 1924 review of Nabokov's 1923 Anya in Wonderland just found!
Date
Body
It's easy to imagine that Nabokov is the author of this review. It could
be fitted exactly into The Gift.

On Wed, Sep 6, 2017 at 10:49 AM, Fet, Victor <fet@marshall.edu> wrote:

> The ONLY existing, very brief, and *VERY negative* review of Nabokov’s 1923 *Anya* (in an émigré journal) was just discovered in 2016 by Galina Glushanok!! No one wrote about *Anya* until Karlinsky 1970…
>
>
>
> Attached article in Russian has it text.
>
> I made an English translation of the review, see below.
>
>
>
> I also found the original online, attached in PDF.
>
> http://kramerius.nkp.cz/kramerius/handle/ABA001/31395884 (djvu)
>
>
>
> This review was published in a Russian émigré journal *Русская школа за
> рубежом* (Russkaia shkola za rubezhom [The Russian School Abroad],
> Prague, 1924, 5-6: 216.
>
>
>
> Funny but I know the review's author's name, Dr *Evgenii Elachich* (Евгений Александрович Елачич, 1880-1944, a bio attached in Russian); he was a zoologist who emigrated in 1917 to Yugoslavia but before 1917 he published a lot in Russia about Polar fauna, birds, dinosaurs etc., as well as children literature.
>
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> Victor Fet
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>
>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>
>
> "L. Carroll. *Anya in Wonderland*. Trans. from English. V. Sirin, with
> ill by. SA Zalshupin. 114 pp. Ed. "Gamayun". Berlin, 1923.
>
>
> No matter what the pedagogical criticism says, no matter what it states,
> books like this one will still be written, published and presented to
> children. Children will read this nonsense, and parents will think and
> argue that such reading "contributes to the development of children's
> imagination." Conscious of my complete frustration in this respect, I still
> want to repeat again and again the arguments which aren’t new. The
> Carroll’s book appeared in the Russian translation long time ago, and even,
> I think, in different translations and retellings. It is clearly designed
> for the bad taste of parents and the indiscrimination of child readers. It
> is a fairy tale, - but there is nothing poetic or heart-felt in it, which
> would give an inherent charm to a good fairy tale. This is a long set of
> insipid and deliberately invented (rather than artistically created),
> exaggerated, incredible adventures and wonders. The wit lies in the fact
> that the girl is constantly changing in size, her neck is stretched a few
> meters, then she becomes very tiny, etc. Many children are very willing to
> read such and, for them, indisputable nonsense: dancing lobsters with
> turtles, playing croquet, as hedgehogs serve as balls and flamingos [*as
> mallets - VF*], etc., etc., but who needs it? Is there at least a shadow
> of benefit from reading such a non-poetic nonsense? I doubt that; but the
> harm of such a book, in my opinion, is certain. So, for example, as the
> transformations of the girl are described, she confuses everything and,
> recollecting verses, recites:
>
>
>
>
> *Say, uncle, it's not for nothing. That you are considered very old, After
> all, really, your hair is gray, And you have grown incredibly fat ...*
> (page 42), etc., and so on.
>
> In another place another "poem" is given:
>
>
>
>
> *Howl, my beautiful baby, If you will sneeze - I will beat you, You [are
> doing it] on purpose - it's clear ... Bye-bye* ... (page 53), etc.
>
> These doubtfully clever remakes are easily remembered, but is it good?
> Children are just beginning to get acquainted with poetry, they would need
> to be taught to feel the beauty of Lermontov's verse, taught to love it,
> and here an ugly, uneasy parody, a mockery is introduced into the child's
> head. And again, some will refer to the fact that "children are so willing
> to read," and seriously believe that in this case this is an argument in
> favor of this book. It still seems to me that those parents and educators
> who want to instill in children respect for the book from early childhood,
> to develop in them good taste, artistic flair and love for their native
> poetry, would have to save their children from clogging their young brains
> with such low-quality literature.
>
>
> Evgenii Elachich
>
>
>
> (transl. Victor Fet, 09.06.2017)
>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>
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