NB: This is a page with the summary and introduction to the Parker Montreux catalogues, for public access. To view the actual files, IVNS members should follow this link.
“This drivel should be disregarded”: Stephen Jan Parker’s Annotated Catalogue of Nabokov’s Montreux Books and Marginalia
Stephen Jan Parker, the founder of the International Vladimir Nabokov Society, who had been Nabokov’s student at Cornell and visited the author in Montreux, later visited again after Nabokov’s death to make a catalogue of the collection of books retained at the apartment in the Palace Hotel. In 1987, he published a first description of this work, which he then hoped would expand into a “detailed commentary and a full, annotated catalogue” (5-6).* Unfortunately, that book was never completed, and what remains are scans of eight binders of Parker’s extensive (and complete) cataloguing efforts. In his 1987 article, Parker notes that according to Véra Nabokov, the books do not represent any kind of intentional collecting by Nabokov, but rather are simply the chance remains of the countless books that passed through his hands—books which, as Parker quotes Véra, “just happened to be saved” (9). Those interested in this material should certainly consult Parker’s description of it, which represents his vision of—perhaps his introduction to— how the catalogue-with-commentary would have been shaped.
Instead of that catalogue, we have these binders, or rather their scans. Unfortunately, the pages within them were typed in the 1980s, using (it seems) traditional tools of those days, including sometimes blotchy impressions from the type ball. These scans were made by Gennady Barabtarlo a year or two before his death, and it is possible that the binder pages themselves were already photocopies or carbon copies of the original pages. What’s more, the pages often include Parker’s own marginalia—notes modifying or commenting on what he had written, or suggesting a new way to think about or comment on the material for his book. Typos are hand corrected. As a result of these various artifacts, OCR software cannot make much that is of use out of these scans, and a very significant percentage of words are garbled in the underlying OCR information (the files have been processed; results should be considered to be only slightly useful for searching).
Especially entertaining are Parker’s transcriptions of Nabokov's sharp reactions written into various books he was reading, especially when commenting on others' introductions to translations of Russian literature: “This translation is insane,” “This is all wrong,” “Wretched trash!” —just a few samples to whet the appetite.
Nabokovians will all feel deep gratitude to Marie-Luce Parker for making these binders available, and to the late Gennady Barabtarlo for the labor of creating the scans and transmitting them to the IVNS. After that work, it seems that the physical binders were discarded, and a database-in-progress was lost at an unknown time.
Below, I have created a very brief and shaggy outline of what each file contains, along with a few or several highlights from each of them. As noted, the binder “VN Library-1” appears to reproduce in a different structure much of what is contained in the other seven binders; it is not clear as of this writing which was made first, or why the repetition occurred, but the “Black Binders” have more detail. Certain of the described books hold extraordinary material: the copy of “Swann’s Way,” from Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, deserves a facsimile publication, or at least a complete publication of Nabokov’s marginalia keyed to a published version of Proust. There are likely other such gems contained in these pages, among much else of interest, and it will be exciting to see how Nabokovians will build upon the foundation of Parker’s efforts. Presumably, many of these marginalia-rich books are now in private collections, but some should be in the Berg Collection at the NYPL.
Links to the files are at the very bottom, and for now are intended only for use by IVNS members. Please do not distribute or re-post them to other sites.
—Stephen Blackwell
*Parker, Stephen Jan. "Nabokov in the Margins: The Montreux Books." Journal of modern literature 14.1 (1987): 5-16.
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Unsystematic summary of binder contents, with highlights (Nabokov's marginalia excerpts are quoted and in italics):
Black Binder 1 of 7
“Unfiled from archive room”
e.g. Tiutchev translating /teaching copy
Various, w/ VN annotations
VDN (VN’s father)’s copy of Madame Bovary
“This is all wrong” // p 9
“Wretched trash!” // p 10
“Graded” collections of stories
Kafka working texts from “archives,” including summary of comments from Véra about the collection. Extensive notes, drafts, remarks, marks
“This drivel should be disregarded” // p 14, regarding “Preface” of “Metamorphosis”
“What utter trash!” // p 14
“the whole page is very overcoatish” // p 15
Don Quixote, including working copy for lectures
Ulysses; SJP notes on conversation w/ VĂ©ra about VN and Joyce // p 30
Anna Karenina, some stories about the possible translation project from VĂ©ra; class text (with summary of marks/notations)
Hero of Our Time, translation work copy
Proust, “Swann’s Way,” teaching copy. Long characterization by SJP, including: “there is so much here that does not come out in the lectures, because this is the record of his own response to the text”, vs. “distillation and reworking and polishing” in the lectures.
Black Binder 2 of 7:
Teaching copies of literature; books on time; books on chess; books on butterflies; many annotations described by SJP.
“This translation is insane” // p 4
“This is lame” // p 24
Black Binder 3 of 7:
More butteflies (from “Archive”)
Véra’s room
Véra’s closet
Gofman Pushkin (p 12, in glass-front bookshelf) [of this, see the Princeton library scan, made available largely thanks to Stanislav Shrabrin's efforts][Sochineniiď¸ a︡ Aleksandra Pushkina / iď¸ u︡bileĭnoe izdaniĚ„e Pushkinskago komiteta ; pod redaktď¸ s︡iĚ„eĭ Prof. M.L. Gofmana ; 1837-1937. Berlin : In Kommission Petropolis-Verlag, 1937 ]
Bedside table
Mirsky, History of Russian Literature, heavily marked
Confirmation of regard for Dostoevsky’s. The Double // p 14
Gogol, Dead Souls, teaching copy
Bernard Guerney, teaching vol of Treasury of Russian Literature, various stories, extensive VN comments; VN argues with Belinsky
“Library” room 69
VN works, various languages
Black Binder 4 of 7 (cont. from above?)
Various books by others, some referencing VN; inscriptions, a few marks
P. Smirnovskii, Uchebnik russkoi grammatiki p. 12 (source of epigraph to The Gift)
Poirier & Vance, American Literature, 1970, includes VN stories “Aleppo” & SM chapter 15; marginalia include comments on poets, e.g. Dickinson, Eliot, Frost, Barth; Frost “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” = best American poem; p. 19
Edmund Wilson books
Black Binder 5 of 7
Wilson cont’d
SJP explanation of VN marking system // p 3
“Upstate,” VN marks // p 4-5
Wilson material ends // p 11
Room 62, Mme Lendie’s
various, a few marked
graded stories from New Yorker // p 23
F. R. Leavis Anna Karenina edition, marked
Mirsky, History of Russian Literature, marked heavily // p 27
Aubrey Beardsley drawings (1967) // p 33
many art books
Attic-- selectively catalogued
Richard A. Gregg on Tiutchev (1965), heavily marked // p 39
Black Binder 6 of 7
More attic
VN’s Russian Gogol book
books for donation
Black Binder 7 of 7
Andrew Field on Russian literature: // p 3
Washington Irving
Jakobson/Szeftel Song of Igor trans. // p 5
Irwin. Weil on Gorky // p 6
Brodskii
Smirnovskii // Posobie pri izuchenii russkoi slovesnosti heavily marked, teaching copy // p 8
VN Cornell exam info // p 15
Chronology of US locations
Véra note on “Double Monster,” plans for larger work // p 19
Books on Siamese twins
tapeworms, talon ad: (“Curiosities”) // p 20
n-e-w-s cardinal points “derivation” p 21
Psychical Research Today, Myers // p 21
some Pale Fire notes // p 21
“Group therapy” (cf Pnin), probably =cards in “Notes on various subjects” > Berg Collection
Cards from “shoebox”, “random”
Start of VN translation of Hamlet into Russian (>Berg, "Various subjects"?)
“Texture of Time” cards
Text of VN lecture, “Olesha and Emigres” // p. 24
SJP outline / scheme for studies based on his catalogue // p 26ff
Reference to SJP “Bibliophile” (software) database from the text; unknown how far it progressed, but is lost.
VN Library-1. This section duplicates much from the “Black Binder” files, and represents a different state of Parker’s work, possibly also a separate or preliminary visit.
Butterflies books from archives
LIBRARY (pres. in apt; by shelf & location)
Three-shelf free-standing bookcase to right of computer table
- top shelf: < “entering ONLY books which appear, by copyright
date, to have been purchased or received by VN prior to his death
in July 1977 -- others to be noted only if of some special
interest” > [p 16 of PDF].
Book inscriptions typed out (from authors, on gifts to VN, usually).
Sitting room
Mrs. Nabokov’s room
Attic Books – taken selectively
Russian Language texts (with VN marks, comments)
Smirnovskii, Uchebnik russkoi grammatiki, heavily marked
Archive room (various), “unfiled by Jul 1985”
Gofman: Botanicheskii atlas