Subject
Re: Brazilian translation of "Lectures on Russian Literature"
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Many belated thanks for your replies, Brian Boyd and Jansy. Fantastic that
more published lectures are in the offing. (By the way, I estimated 15
total lectures based on the books' chapter headings, not considering that
some chapters contain multiple--if brief--lectures.)
On a somewhat related note, I hope Edward Jay Epstein will elaborate on his
time as VN's movie scout (http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/Nabokov.htm). I
wrote him a few months ago for details about the movies he recommended to
VN, as well as Nabokov's opinion of them, and he said he planned to delve
further in a later post. If any other listers are as curious, maybe they
could gently prod him by email?
Brian T.
On Sat, Aug 23, 2014 at 7:51 PM, Brian Boyd <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
> There are far more than 15 lectures in those three books. The
> Masterpieces of European Fiction course consisted of about 80 lectures over
> two semesters, and there's no reason to think there's anything substantial
> missing from the published volumes. Anna Karenin and in some years Dead
> Souls were part of this course, so it would be a better estimate to say
> that there were elements of about 40-50 lectures in the Lectures on
> Literature volume (the material was constantly being tinkered with), and
> about the same in the Lectures on Russian Literature. Nabokov prepared his
> text, but he delivered it at a pace that made it seem he was thinking on
> his feet: he did not simply read the material, and he repeated phrases
> often, so the contents of a lecture would often fill only a few pages in
> the finished volume.
>
> There are also lectures that constituted various forms of a Russian
> survey course, focusing mostly on poetry, especially from Pushkin (who took
> up a large part of the course, or sometimes was the sole focus of a
> separate course) to Blok, but with material going back to Avvakum (and no
> doubt in some years to the Song of Igor's Campaign, although the lecture
> material for that was integrated into the book of the same name, as some of
> the Pushkin material found its way into VN's EO commentary) and forward as
> far as Khodasevich and Mandelstam. These should be published within the
> next few years, and probably constitute about 1.5 times the material in
> either Lectures on Literature or Lectures on Russian Literature, although
> like these volumes will have to be edited down, to eliminate material
> appropriate only for the classroom and not for the page.
>
> Brian Boyd
>
>
>
> On 23/08/2014, at 6:23 am, Brian <pianissimo.nyc@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> I continue to wonder if Nabokov's lecture notes still exist, for books
> other than the ones published in *Lectures on Literature*, *Lectures on
> Russian
> Literature*, and *Lectures on Don Quixote*? Together those three books
> contain about 15 lectures, but in one interview (reprinted in *Strong
> Opinions*) VN said he wrote 200 lectures:
>
> "In 1940, before launching on my academic career in America, I fortunately
> took the trouble of writing one hundred lectures--about 2,000 pages--on
> Russian literature, and later another hundred lectures on great novelists
> from Jane Austen to James Joyce. This kept me happy at Wellesley and
> Cornell for twenty academic years."
>
> Either 1) VN wildly exaggerated the number of lectures he wrote, by
> misremembering or fibbing (both seem to me unlikely); or 2) the lectures
> were lost or destroyed (in which case I'd be curious to know what
> percentage of his work is believed lost)
>
> Does anyone on the list know if VN's surviving papers make mention of
> these lectures or how many there were? I'd love to read the remaining 185
> or so lectures he wrote, or at least to
> know what the books were, since he seems to have lectured primarily on
> what he considered masterpieces or near-masterpieces.
>
> Many thanks for any help,
>
> Brian Tomba
>
>
> 2014-08-22 13:40 GMT-04:00 Jansy Mello <jansy.mello@outlook.com>:
>
>>
>> http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ilustrada/2014/08/1497711-critica-nabokov-esquadrinha-obra-de-russos-em-livro-cativante.shtml
>>
>>
>> Crítica: Nabokov esquadrinha obra de russos em livro cativante
>> IRINEU FRANCO PERPETUO, COLABORAÇÃO PARA A FOLHA, 09/08/2014 02h32
>>
>> O autor de um dos mais relevantes romances do século 20 foi também um
>> agudo divulgador e estudioso da cultura de seu país.
>> O livro "Lições de Literatura Russa", da Três Estrelas, selo editorial do
>> Grupo Folha, sintetiza parte das atividades letivas do escritor Vladimir
>> Nabokov (1899-1977) nos Estados Unidos, antes da consagração de "Lolita"[
>> ].Irônico, polêmico e apaixonado pela literatura, o autor de "Lolita" é
>> tão incapaz de ser humilde e imparcial quanto de ser superficial ou
>> desinteressante. Entre achados iluminadores e diatribes certeiras, sua
>> leitura é um prazer --mesmo quando se discorda dele."
>>
>> *LIÇÕES DE LITERATURA RUSSA*
>> *AUTOR* Vladimir Nabokov
>> *TRADUÇÃO* Jorio Dauster
>> *EDITORA* Três Estrelas
>> *QUANTO* R$ 65 (400 págs.)
>> *AVALIAÇÃO* ótimo
>>
>> .
>> Google Search
>> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
>> the archive
>> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
>> Contact <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
>> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> NOJ
>> <http://www.nabokovonline.com/> Zembla
>> <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Nabokv-L
>> <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
>> 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.
>>
>
> Google Search
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> the archive
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> Contact <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> NOJ
> <http://www.nabokovonline.com/> Zembla
> <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Nabokv-L
> <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
> 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.
>
>
> Google Search
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> the archive
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> Contact <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> NOJ
> <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Zembla
> <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Nabokv-L
> <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
> 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
Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
AdaOnline: "http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/
The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
The VN Bibliography Blog: http://vnbiblio.com/
Search the archive with L-Soft: https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L
Manage subscription options :http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L
more published lectures are in the offing. (By the way, I estimated 15
total lectures based on the books' chapter headings, not considering that
some chapters contain multiple--if brief--lectures.)
On a somewhat related note, I hope Edward Jay Epstein will elaborate on his
time as VN's movie scout (http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/Nabokov.htm). I
wrote him a few months ago for details about the movies he recommended to
VN, as well as Nabokov's opinion of them, and he said he planned to delve
further in a later post. If any other listers are as curious, maybe they
could gently prod him by email?
Brian T.
On Sat, Aug 23, 2014 at 7:51 PM, Brian Boyd <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
> There are far more than 15 lectures in those three books. The
> Masterpieces of European Fiction course consisted of about 80 lectures over
> two semesters, and there's no reason to think there's anything substantial
> missing from the published volumes. Anna Karenin and in some years Dead
> Souls were part of this course, so it would be a better estimate to say
> that there were elements of about 40-50 lectures in the Lectures on
> Literature volume (the material was constantly being tinkered with), and
> about the same in the Lectures on Russian Literature. Nabokov prepared his
> text, but he delivered it at a pace that made it seem he was thinking on
> his feet: he did not simply read the material, and he repeated phrases
> often, so the contents of a lecture would often fill only a few pages in
> the finished volume.
>
> There are also lectures that constituted various forms of a Russian
> survey course, focusing mostly on poetry, especially from Pushkin (who took
> up a large part of the course, or sometimes was the sole focus of a
> separate course) to Blok, but with material going back to Avvakum (and no
> doubt in some years to the Song of Igor's Campaign, although the lecture
> material for that was integrated into the book of the same name, as some of
> the Pushkin material found its way into VN's EO commentary) and forward as
> far as Khodasevich and Mandelstam. These should be published within the
> next few years, and probably constitute about 1.5 times the material in
> either Lectures on Literature or Lectures on Russian Literature, although
> like these volumes will have to be edited down, to eliminate material
> appropriate only for the classroom and not for the page.
>
> Brian Boyd
>
>
>
> On 23/08/2014, at 6:23 am, Brian <pianissimo.nyc@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>
> I continue to wonder if Nabokov's lecture notes still exist, for books
> other than the ones published in *Lectures on Literature*, *Lectures on
> Russian
> Literature*, and *Lectures on Don Quixote*? Together those three books
> contain about 15 lectures, but in one interview (reprinted in *Strong
> Opinions*) VN said he wrote 200 lectures:
>
> "In 1940, before launching on my academic career in America, I fortunately
> took the trouble of writing one hundred lectures--about 2,000 pages--on
> Russian literature, and later another hundred lectures on great novelists
> from Jane Austen to James Joyce. This kept me happy at Wellesley and
> Cornell for twenty academic years."
>
> Either 1) VN wildly exaggerated the number of lectures he wrote, by
> misremembering or fibbing (both seem to me unlikely); or 2) the lectures
> were lost or destroyed (in which case I'd be curious to know what
> percentage of his work is believed lost)
>
> Does anyone on the list know if VN's surviving papers make mention of
> these lectures or how many there were? I'd love to read the remaining 185
> or so lectures he wrote, or at least to
> know what the books were, since he seems to have lectured primarily on
> what he considered masterpieces or near-masterpieces.
>
> Many thanks for any help,
>
> Brian Tomba
>
>
> 2014-08-22 13:40 GMT-04:00 Jansy Mello <jansy.mello@outlook.com>:
>
>>
>> http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ilustrada/2014/08/1497711-critica-nabokov-esquadrinha-obra-de-russos-em-livro-cativante.shtml
>>
>>
>> Crítica: Nabokov esquadrinha obra de russos em livro cativante
>> IRINEU FRANCO PERPETUO, COLABORAÇÃO PARA A FOLHA, 09/08/2014 02h32
>>
>> O autor de um dos mais relevantes romances do século 20 foi também um
>> agudo divulgador e estudioso da cultura de seu país.
>> O livro "Lições de Literatura Russa", da Três Estrelas, selo editorial do
>> Grupo Folha, sintetiza parte das atividades letivas do escritor Vladimir
>> Nabokov (1899-1977) nos Estados Unidos, antes da consagração de "Lolita"[
>> ].Irônico, polêmico e apaixonado pela literatura, o autor de "Lolita" é
>> tão incapaz de ser humilde e imparcial quanto de ser superficial ou
>> desinteressante. Entre achados iluminadores e diatribes certeiras, sua
>> leitura é um prazer --mesmo quando se discorda dele."
>>
>> *LIÇÕES DE LITERATURA RUSSA*
>> *AUTOR* Vladimir Nabokov
>> *TRADUÇÃO* Jorio Dauster
>> *EDITORA* Três Estrelas
>> *QUANTO* R$ 65 (400 págs.)
>> *AVALIAÇÃO* ótimo
>>
>> .
>> Google Search
>> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
>> the archive
>> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
>> Contact <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
>> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> NOJ
>> <http://www.nabokovonline.com/> Zembla
>> <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Nabokv-L
>> <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
>> 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.
>>
>
> Google Search
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> the archive
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> Contact <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> NOJ
> <http://www.nabokovonline.com/> Zembla
> <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Nabokv-L
> <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
> 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.
>
>
> Google Search
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> the archive
> <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
> Contact <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
> the Editors <nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu> NOJ
> <http://www.nabokovonline.com> Zembla
> <http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm> Nabokv-L
> <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
> 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
Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
AdaOnline: "http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/
The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
The VN Bibliography Blog: http://vnbiblio.com/
Search the archive with L-Soft: https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L
Manage subscription options :http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L