Subject
Re: Brian Boyd rates VN's Greatest...
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I've been thinking the same thing Eric.
I don't have a definitive ranking fully worked out, but I'm with you in placing the Stories higher than Brian Boyd has (with gratitude to him for setting a precedent allowing us to treat them as one work!), and I would boost Invitation by several notches. I'm afraid I'm in "Team Hate" for Ada so for me that'd be tossed altogether (gasp!) but I would include Despair in my line-up and considerably demote The Gift. I'd place Pnin above The Luzhin Defense without hesitation.
Not for the first time, this exercise has made me resolve to set aside a chunk of time for a chronological Nabokov marathon, after which I wonder if my list wouldn't be quite different. For instance, I remember The Gift as enjoyable enough but ultimately laborious and a bit forgettable, but I read it absolutely donkey's years ago and possibly in the wrong mindset to appreciate it. I'm also interested to see if anyone will rate Laughter in the Dark in their Top Ten, which I find I haven't thought about for a long time; and a few nightmarishly unforgettable passages notwithstanding, I've never been quite sure where I stand on Bend Sinister as a whole.
Very thought-provoking, thank you!
________________________________
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU> on behalf of Hyman, Eric <ehyman@UNCFSU.EDU>
Sent: 09 November 2015 14:09
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Brian Boyd rates VN's Greatest...
Dear List:
Is it worthwhile for a kind of free-for all discussion about our own rankings? Brain Boyd is absolutely right to not take such rankings seriously, but it might be fun. I, for example, would rank the short fiction higher and would include Bend Sinister on my 10 Best list. Yes, of course, the hard question would be what to drop to include Bend Sinister.
Eric Hyman
Professor of English
Department of English
Butler 133
Fayetteville State University
1200 Murchison Road
Fayetteville, NC 28301-4252
(910) 672-1901
ehyman@uncfsu.edu
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of Jansy Mello
Sent: Saturday, November 07, 2015 4:15 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: [NABOKV-L] Brian Boyd rates VN's Greatest...
The 10 Best Vladimir Nabokov Books
By Brian Boyd | Nov 06, 2015
Award-winning Nabokov biographer Brian Boyd wrote an MA thesis that Vladimir Nabokov called “brilliant” and a PhD thesis that Véra Nabokov thought the best thing written about her husband to date. Boyd, editor of Letters to Véra<http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0307593368>
[http://www.publishersweekly.com/images/data/IMG/img/000/000/1-3.PNG]<http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0307593368>
Nonfiction Book Review: Letters to Vera by Vladimir Nabokov, edited and trans. from the Russian by Olga Voronina and Brian Boyd. Knopf, $35 (864p) ISBN 978-0-307-59336-8
It's hard to imagine Vladimir Nabokov spending enough time away from his wife, Vera, to write even a single letter to her, much less a massive collection of them. However, in this authoritative and ch
Read more...<http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0307593368>
, chronicling the decades-long love story between Vladimir and Véra, picks the 10 best Nabokov books.
Vladimir Nabokov’s Letters to Véra, edited and translated by Olga Voronina and myself, publishes on November 4 (Knopf). The letters cover a span from 1923, the year the couple met, to 1976, the year before Nabokov died. Véra famously helped Vladimir as first reader, editor, typist, secretary and agent, although not, despite the rumors, as co-author. But Nabokov did once write to her: “I read parts of your little card (about the move—terrible! I can imagine . . . ) out loud to Ilyusha and Zinzin and they said they understood now who writes my books for me.” We can see glints and shadows or more of Véra in four of the books on this top ten list, in Pale Fire’s Sybil Shade, The Gift’s Zina Mertz, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight’s Claire Bishop, and Speak, Memory’s “you.”
Martin Amis is not alone in rating Nabokov the greatest writer of the twentieth century while ranking Ulysses as the century’s greatest single novel. The top two novels below, though, have both rated higher than even Ulysses in some published lists. Don’t take such orderings too seriously, but do take the books into your life.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/68589-the-10-best-vladimir-nabokov-books.html
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I don't have a definitive ranking fully worked out, but I'm with you in placing the Stories higher than Brian Boyd has (with gratitude to him for setting a precedent allowing us to treat them as one work!), and I would boost Invitation by several notches. I'm afraid I'm in "Team Hate" for Ada so for me that'd be tossed altogether (gasp!) but I would include Despair in my line-up and considerably demote The Gift. I'd place Pnin above The Luzhin Defense without hesitation.
Not for the first time, this exercise has made me resolve to set aside a chunk of time for a chronological Nabokov marathon, after which I wonder if my list wouldn't be quite different. For instance, I remember The Gift as enjoyable enough but ultimately laborious and a bit forgettable, but I read it absolutely donkey's years ago and possibly in the wrong mindset to appreciate it. I'm also interested to see if anyone will rate Laughter in the Dark in their Top Ten, which I find I haven't thought about for a long time; and a few nightmarishly unforgettable passages notwithstanding, I've never been quite sure where I stand on Bend Sinister as a whole.
Very thought-provoking, thank you!
________________________________
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU> on behalf of Hyman, Eric <ehyman@UNCFSU.EDU>
Sent: 09 November 2015 14:09
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Brian Boyd rates VN's Greatest...
Dear List:
Is it worthwhile for a kind of free-for all discussion about our own rankings? Brain Boyd is absolutely right to not take such rankings seriously, but it might be fun. I, for example, would rank the short fiction higher and would include Bend Sinister on my 10 Best list. Yes, of course, the hard question would be what to drop to include Bend Sinister.
Eric Hyman
Professor of English
Department of English
Butler 133
Fayetteville State University
1200 Murchison Road
Fayetteville, NC 28301-4252
(910) 672-1901
ehyman@uncfsu.edu
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of Jansy Mello
Sent: Saturday, November 07, 2015 4:15 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: [NABOKV-L] Brian Boyd rates VN's Greatest...
The 10 Best Vladimir Nabokov Books
By Brian Boyd | Nov 06, 2015
Award-winning Nabokov biographer Brian Boyd wrote an MA thesis that Vladimir Nabokov called “brilliant” and a PhD thesis that Véra Nabokov thought the best thing written about her husband to date. Boyd, editor of Letters to Véra<http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0307593368>
[http://www.publishersweekly.com/images/data/IMG/img/000/000/1-3.PNG]<http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0307593368>
Nonfiction Book Review: Letters to Vera by Vladimir Nabokov, edited and trans. from the Russian by Olga Voronina and Brian Boyd. Knopf, $35 (864p) ISBN 978-0-307-59336-8
It's hard to imagine Vladimir Nabokov spending enough time away from his wife, Vera, to write even a single letter to her, much less a massive collection of them. However, in this authoritative and ch
Read more...<http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0307593368>
, chronicling the decades-long love story between Vladimir and Véra, picks the 10 best Nabokov books.
Vladimir Nabokov’s Letters to Véra, edited and translated by Olga Voronina and myself, publishes on November 4 (Knopf). The letters cover a span from 1923, the year the couple met, to 1976, the year before Nabokov died. Véra famously helped Vladimir as first reader, editor, typist, secretary and agent, although not, despite the rumors, as co-author. But Nabokov did once write to her: “I read parts of your little card (about the move—terrible! I can imagine . . . ) out loud to Ilyusha and Zinzin and they said they understood now who writes my books for me.” We can see glints and shadows or more of Véra in four of the books on this top ten list, in Pale Fire’s Sybil Shade, The Gift’s Zina Mertz, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight’s Claire Bishop, and Speak, Memory’s “you.”
Martin Amis is not alone in rating Nabokov the greatest writer of the twentieth century while ranking Ulysses as the century’s greatest single novel. The top two novels below, though, have both rated higher than even Ulysses in some published lists. Don’t take such orderings too seriously, but do take the books into your life.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/68589-the-10-best-vladimir-nabokov-books.html
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L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L>
VN Bibliography Blog<http://vnbiblio.com/>
All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
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Policies<http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm> Subscription options<http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L> AdaOnline<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/> NSJ Ada Annotations<http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html> L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L> VN Bibliography Blog<http://vnbiblio.com/>
All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
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
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Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
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The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
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