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Re: NABOKOV ONLY GRUDGINGLY RESPECTED IT ...
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On 1/12/07 07:24, "Sandy P. Klein" <spklein52@HOTMAIL.COM> forwarded:
> ANGLICIZING EL INGENIOSO HIDALGO
> NABOKOV ONLY GRUDGINGLY RESPECTED IT, ...
>
> Sandy: hardly a fair summary of VN¹s Lectures on Don Quixote (Harvest/HBJ,
> 1983)?
>
> This deep, detailed critical study (some 200 pages) must be read through
> thoughtfully rather than cherry-picked for the sour sound-bites!
> Fredson Bowers¹ Editor¹s Preface points to VN¹s agreement with Harry Levin¹s
> opinion that DQ was the logical starting point for discussing the development
> of the novel.¹ This helps explain the enormous effort VN devoted to analysing
> this work. Guy Davenport¹s Foreword explains the context for VN¹s reported
> delight in tearing apart Don Quixote, a cruel and crude old book, before 600
> students in Memorial Hall, much to the horror and embarrassment of some of my
> more conservative colleagues.¹ Davenport continues, Tear it apart he did, for
> good critical reasons, but he also put it back together.¹ (My bold emphasis.)
>
> The opening quotation ends with a puzzling
> BUT DON QUIXOTE IS STILL THE BOOK THAT TRANSLATORS TEST THEMSELVES AGAINST.
>
> That BUT has no opposing, logical disjunction (as any decent BUT deserves)
> between VN¹s grudging¹ respect, and the popular challenge of translating DQ
> into English. Rather, in sweeping away the over-sentimental accretions to
> Cervante¹s characters, VN has increased our interest in the novel. To reshape
> the citation nearer to my desires:
>
> BECAUSE OF NABOKOV¹S BRILLIANT INSIGHTS INTO BOTH DON QUIXOTE AND THE
> CHALLENGES OF TRANSLATION, IT IS NO SURPRISE TO FIND THAT THIS IS STILL THE
> BOOK THAT TRANSLATORS TEST THEMSELVES AGAINST.
>
> Stan Kelly-Bootle
> Curmudgeon column at
> http://acmqueue.org
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
> ANGLICIZING EL INGENIOSO HIDALGO
> NABOKOV ONLY GRUDGINGLY RESPECTED IT, ...
>
> Sandy: hardly a fair summary of VN¹s Lectures on Don Quixote (Harvest/HBJ,
> 1983)?
>
> This deep, detailed critical study (some 200 pages) must be read through
> thoughtfully rather than cherry-picked for the sour sound-bites!
> Fredson Bowers¹ Editor¹s Preface points to VN¹s agreement with Harry Levin¹s
> opinion that DQ was the logical starting point for discussing the development
> of the novel.¹ This helps explain the enormous effort VN devoted to analysing
> this work. Guy Davenport¹s Foreword explains the context for VN¹s reported
> delight in tearing apart Don Quixote, a cruel and crude old book, before 600
> students in Memorial Hall, much to the horror and embarrassment of some of my
> more conservative colleagues.¹ Davenport continues, Tear it apart he did, for
> good critical reasons, but he also put it back together.¹ (My bold emphasis.)
>
> The opening quotation ends with a puzzling
> BUT DON QUIXOTE IS STILL THE BOOK THAT TRANSLATORS TEST THEMSELVES AGAINST.
>
> That BUT has no opposing, logical disjunction (as any decent BUT deserves)
> between VN¹s grudging¹ respect, and the popular challenge of translating DQ
> into English. Rather, in sweeping away the over-sentimental accretions to
> Cervante¹s characters, VN has increased our interest in the novel. To reshape
> the citation nearer to my desires:
>
> BECAUSE OF NABOKOV¹S BRILLIANT INSIGHTS INTO BOTH DON QUIXOTE AND THE
> CHALLENGES OF TRANSLATION, IT IS NO SURPRISE TO FIND THAT THIS IS STILL THE
> BOOK THAT TRANSLATORS TEST THEMSELVES AGAINST.
>
> Stan Kelly-Bootle
> Curmudgeon column at
> http://acmqueue.org
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm