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VN Bibliography: Raguet-Bouvart on Lolita (fwd)
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From: Jeff Edmunds <jhe@psulias.psu.edu>
------------------ Nabokovians and Dolorologists,
A new book on _Lolita_ by French Nabokov specialist Christine Raguet-Bouvart
has just been published. (Raguet-Bouvart has written extensively on Nabokov
in both French and English and has translated both his published letters and
_Laughter in the Dark_ into French.)
Full citation:
RAGUET-BOUVART, Christine. _Lolita: un royaume au-del`a des mers_ (Talence:
Presses universitaires de Bordeaux, 1996) ISBN 2867811732. 313 pp.
The back cover blurb reads:
"Until now no French study has been devoted to _Lolita_, a work of world
reknown but still the subject of controversy, as is evidenced by the
persistent polemics surrounding the hero's lechery, or even, by
displacement, around that of the author himself. Proof, in fact, that
_Lolita_ conforms to the processes of mimicry which, in the manifestations
of the natural world--for example lepidoptera, of which he was a passionate
observer--so fascinated Nabokov that he sought to transpose them into his
fictional world.
This original analysis, in drawing on existing foreign criticism as well as
the examination of documents available at the Nabokov Archives in Montreux,
seeks to bring out the mythical dimension the novel has acquired in
Nabokov's production.
The anthology of 26 documents that augments it reflects the extent of the
reception and the variety of readings that this rich and ambiguous work
provokes."
[The anthology mentioned will be especially useful for _Lolita_ scholars, as
it collects many of the most famous early responses to the novel, from
Maurice Girodias, Bernard Levin, Philip Toynbee, V.S. Pritchett, Paul
Lauter, and Richard Schickel to name but a few. These are reprinted in the
original English.]
Jeff Edmunds
------------------ Nabokovians and Dolorologists,
A new book on _Lolita_ by French Nabokov specialist Christine Raguet-Bouvart
has just been published. (Raguet-Bouvart has written extensively on Nabokov
in both French and English and has translated both his published letters and
_Laughter in the Dark_ into French.)
Full citation:
RAGUET-BOUVART, Christine. _Lolita: un royaume au-del`a des mers_ (Talence:
Presses universitaires de Bordeaux, 1996) ISBN 2867811732. 313 pp.
The back cover blurb reads:
"Until now no French study has been devoted to _Lolita_, a work of world
reknown but still the subject of controversy, as is evidenced by the
persistent polemics surrounding the hero's lechery, or even, by
displacement, around that of the author himself. Proof, in fact, that
_Lolita_ conforms to the processes of mimicry which, in the manifestations
of the natural world--for example lepidoptera, of which he was a passionate
observer--so fascinated Nabokov that he sought to transpose them into his
fictional world.
This original analysis, in drawing on existing foreign criticism as well as
the examination of documents available at the Nabokov Archives in Montreux,
seeks to bring out the mythical dimension the novel has acquired in
Nabokov's production.
The anthology of 26 documents that augments it reflects the extent of the
reception and the variety of readings that this rich and ambiguous work
provokes."
[The anthology mentioned will be especially useful for _Lolita_ scholars, as
it collects many of the most famous early responses to the novel, from
Maurice Girodias, Bernard Levin, Philip Toynbee, V.S. Pritchett, Paul
Lauter, and Richard Schickel to name but a few. These are reprinted in the
original English.]
Jeff Edmunds