Subject
Re: "Spring In Fialta" (fwd) II (fwd)
Date
Body
Thanks for crediting me with identifying Nabokov as the
Englishman in "Spring in Fialta." But as you suggest, I was not the
first. I do so in the special Russian- Lit- Triquarterly issue,
where I mention previous essays by Monter and Saputelli (I had
myself previously mentioned it at the Nabokov conference at Yale,
but long after Monter). At any rate, at least three of us agree, so
maybe it's safe to assume that this is a recognized device in this
particular story. I believe that the only dissenters are
Shchakhovskaya--who mentions similarities between Nabokov and the
Hungarian writer--and Field in his most recent book when he discusses
Shchakhovskaya and sort of agrees with her; and even these are not
excluding the Englishman, if I remember correctly.
As for the parentheses, they seem to be the only things left out
of Jurgen von Bodestein's book many years ago. The only particularly
characteristic parentheses I ever noticed were the ones consisting
mostly of three nouns attempting to provide a complete description in
four or five words; Proffer may mention these in that very little ol'
*Keys to Lolita.*
-- Charles Nico