----- Original Message -----

From: D. Barton Johnson

To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU

Sent: Monday, June 16, 2003 1:36 PM

Subject: Fw: Nabokov Quiz ....

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Sandy P. Klein

 

Nabokov Quiz

Personal Data & General Tidbits 1. Nabokov met his wife Véra at        a. a ballet in Petrograd        b. a ball in Berlin        c. the opera in Paris       2. At which of the following universities did Nabokov not hold a teaching position?              a. Cornell        b. Wellesley        c. Vassar        d. Stanford        e. Harvard       3. In Russia Nabokov wrote under the pseudonym of        a. V. Sirin        b. Vladimir Virin        c. Van Veen 4. Nabokov’s ! only son, Dmitri, became        a. an opera singer and race car driver        b. an interior decorator and race car driver        c. a theatrical director and race car driver       5. Nabokov and his wife claimed to have shared a sense of              a. kinesthesia        b. synesthesia        c. telesthesia       6. Lolita was first published by              a. Algoritm Publishers in Moscow & St.-Petersburg       b. Olympia Press in Paris       c. Editions Zoé in Switzerland        d. G. P. Putnam’s Sons in the U.S.       7. Which one of the following actors never portrayed a Nabokov character?              a. Peter Sellers        b. Frank Langella        c. Nicol Williamson        d. Sue Lyon        e. Melanie Griffith        f.  Ana Karina        g. Dominique Swain        h. Klaus Kinski       8. Which rock group includes a reference to Nabokov in their lyrics?              a. The Police        b. The Cure        c. U2        9. Which British writer once conducted an interview with Mrs. Nabokov that she later claimed was not reported accurately?              a. Ian McEwan        b. Christopher Isherwood        c. Martin Amis       10. On which of the following topics did Nabokov and his epistolary companion, Edmund Wilson, not debate?              a. the nature of Russian versification        b. the merits of Lenin        c. the value of Charles Dickens       d. the aesthetics of lepidoptera      11. Nabokov was known to have        a. hidden behind menus in restaurants while his wife ordered        b. conducted telephone conversations with the caller through his wife        c. depended on his wife to handle most all of his business   correspondence        d. relied on his wife to correct his students’ blue books and assist him in lecturing        e. all of the above        f. none of the above       12. Nabokov had a fondness for writing his fiction on                a. long, yellow legal pads        b. index cards       c. the back side of his correspondence     The Texts 13. A potpourri of characters, none obscure . . . Match the following names to the novel in which we find them:             1. ____John Shade       2. ____Adam Krug       3. ____Kurt Dreyer       4. ____Lev Ganin       5. ____Dolly Haze       6. ____Liza Bogoepov       7. ____Albinus       8. ____Fyodor Godunuv-Cherdynstev       9. ____Cincinnatus C.     10. ____Martin ! Edelweiss     11. ____Vadim Vadimich  & nbsp;  12. ____Marina Durmanov     13. ____Mr. Silbermann     14. ____Luzhin     15. ____Hermann       a. Ada       b. The Real Life of Sebastian Knight       c. Bend Sinister       d. King, Queen. Knave       e. Pale Fire       f. Lolita       g. Pnin       h. Laughter in the Dark       i. Invitation to a Beheading       j. The Defense       k. Despair       l. Glory       m. Mary       n. Look at the Harlequins!       o. The Gift 14. Dr. Charles Kinbote claims to c! ome from the kingdom of              a. Zembla        b. Antiterra        c. Padukgrad       15. Ada’s younger sister Lucette       a. leapt off a cliff in southern France b. threw herself under a train in Prague c. jumped off an ocean liner in the Atlantic       16. Lolita married and settled down in       a. upstate New York b. Alaska c. Connecticut d. the Midwest         17. As critics have pointed out, there are many analogies between The Defense and        a. "The Overcoat"        b. The Cherry Orchard        c. The Death of Ivan Ilych       18. Nabokov’s second novel King, Queen, Knave is a self-reflexive satirical version of              a. the novel of manners        b the novel of adultery        c. the novel of the émigré       19. The first novel Nabokov wrote in America and his second major dystopia would be              a. Invitation! to a Beheading        b. Bend Sinister        c. Laughter in the Dark       20. In The Gift the protagonist researches              a. the literary biography of Nikolai Chernyshevsky        b. the origins and principles of Daguerre’s camera obscura        c. the historical background of Czar Alexander       21. Nabokov’s short story "Ultima Thule" from the collection A Russian Beauty includes the character of Mr. Falter, who claims to know              a. the origin of time        b. the spatial referents to a paral! lel universe        c. the solut ion to the mystery of the universe       22. In the short story "Signs and Symbols" from Nabokov’s Dozen: Thirteen Stories, "referential mania" is suffered by              a. a young Jewish boy in a mental hospital        b. a Russian émigré in an American university        c. a middle-aged German doctor in Berlin       23. In 1944 Nabokov wrote a study of              a. Nikolai Gogol        b. Alexander Pushkin        c. ! Ivan Turgenev       24. Nabokov’s "chess novel" would be        a. Pnin        b. Look at the Harlequins!        c. The Defense       25. The only Russian character to appear in Lolita is        a. the actor Fyodor        b. the taxi driver Maximovich        c. the camp counselor Olga        d. the doorman Vladimir *  *  * Two fine Nabokov sites to visit:  Zembla  The official site for The International Vladimir Nabokov Society Waxwing  A more personalized site

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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