Subject
Sotheby sale of VN _Camera obscura_
From
Date
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See the following week's TLS Letters page (28 June, 2002, p. 17) which
printed my letter pointing out the error in inventing 'Smekh v temnote'.
I learnt from a friend afterwards that this JC has a Russian wife. That
explained it!
Best wishes
Jane
----- Original Message -----
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gte.net>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Friday, July 05, 2002 6:58 PM
Subject: Sotheby sale of VN _Camera obscura_
> James Campbell's NB column in the (London) Times Literary Supplement
> (June 21, 2002; p. 18) contains a curious item. On July 12, Sotheby's is
> auctioning a copy of Vladimir Nabokov-Sirin's _Camera obscura_,
> published by Long in 1936. It is the Winifred Roy translation. The
> volume itself is very rare and there are reportedly only three with the
> original paper jacket. Juliar has a photo of the cover but the TLS note
> displays a color photo of the book with its rather tattered jacket.
>
> The story (or the Sotheby catalogue description) mistakenly asserts
> that the edition is a translation of the Russian _Smeh v Temnote_
> better known in English as _Laughter in the Dark_. Most curious, since
> the first and only title of the original version of the novel is (in
> translated Cyrillic) _ Kamera obskura_. VN later extensively revised the
> book and did an English edition (1938) with the title _Laughter in the
> Dark_. The Russian _Smeh v Temnote_ version is a very recent
> development. When Symposium publishers in St. Petersburg issued their
> handsomely annotated ten-volume VN centennial edition, they included not
> only VN's original Russian version (1932) but a "back" translation of
> the revised 1938 English _Laughter in the Dark__, entitled _Smeh v
> Temnote_. Before this there never was a VN Russian work entitled _Smeh (
> better "Smex" or Smekh) v Temnote."
>
> More happily, the article remarks that Winifred Roy translated __Camera
> obscura_ from the FRENCH version (_Chambre obscure_ done by Doussia
> Ergaz [1934]), and NOT the Russian as had been assumed -- a fact I
> pointed out some time ago.
>
>
> D. Barton Johnson
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Winifred
>
See the following week's TLS Letters page (28 June, 2002, p. 17) which
printed my letter pointing out the error in inventing 'Smekh v temnote'.
I learnt from a friend afterwards that this JC has a Russian wife. That
explained it!
Best wishes
Jane
----- Original Message -----
From: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gte.net>
To: <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
Sent: Friday, July 05, 2002 6:58 PM
Subject: Sotheby sale of VN _Camera obscura_
> James Campbell's NB column in the (London) Times Literary Supplement
> (June 21, 2002; p. 18) contains a curious item. On July 12, Sotheby's is
> auctioning a copy of Vladimir Nabokov-Sirin's _Camera obscura_,
> published by Long in 1936. It is the Winifred Roy translation. The
> volume itself is very rare and there are reportedly only three with the
> original paper jacket. Juliar has a photo of the cover but the TLS note
> displays a color photo of the book with its rather tattered jacket.
>
> The story (or the Sotheby catalogue description) mistakenly asserts
> that the edition is a translation of the Russian _Smeh v Temnote_
> better known in English as _Laughter in the Dark_. Most curious, since
> the first and only title of the original version of the novel is (in
> translated Cyrillic) _ Kamera obskura_. VN later extensively revised the
> book and did an English edition (1938) with the title _Laughter in the
> Dark_. The Russian _Smeh v Temnote_ version is a very recent
> development. When Symposium publishers in St. Petersburg issued their
> handsomely annotated ten-volume VN centennial edition, they included not
> only VN's original Russian version (1932) but a "back" translation of
> the revised 1938 English _Laughter in the Dark__, entitled _Smeh v
> Temnote_. Before this there never was a VN Russian work entitled _Smeh (
> better "Smex" or Smekh) v Temnote."
>
> More happily, the article remarks that Winifred Roy translated __Camera
> obscura_ from the FRENCH version (_Chambre obscure_ done by Doussia
> Ergaz [1934]), and NOT the Russian as had been assumed -- a fact I
> pointed out some time ago.
>
>
> D. Barton Johnson
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Winifred
>