----- Original Message -----
From: Dmitri
Nabokov
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2003 7:17 PM
Subject: RE: Nabokov Bibliography (Russian)
Dear
Don (kindly post if you don't mind my frankness),
I
am extremely surprised that you keep taking this scumbag
pirate seriously -- nay, respectfully, with an "Ednote" in fat, black type
to boot. I don't want to say more since I
have not yet succeeded in downloading Mme.Chekalov's review (or
the other items), but I know enough about Zver'ev to tell you it is
insolence to mention him in the same breath with Boyd. And I have read
enough of fork-tongued Mel'nikov to predict the tone of his contribution
fairly accurately. If you can prove me wrong on those two counts, I'll be
delighted. As for Stacy Schiff, she is a friend, so I shall not belabor the
veracity and syntax of her Hasty Pulitzer, but I have checked the
Russian translation and it compounds things by being pretty awful (you will
quickly recognize the style of the translatress). In Italy, by the
way, Stacy is published by Fandango, who were responsible for Pia Pera's
travesty of Lolita (about which you, like most others, have probably
and understandably forgotten). Why not leave these
"literary critics" alone to gag in their corner on their twice-gnawed
biographical bones?
Respectfully,
Dmitri
From: D. Barton Johnson
[mailto:chtodel@cox.net]
Sent: Friday, July 18, 2003 2:46
PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Nabokov Bibliography (Russian)
EDNOTE. Moscow literary critic Nikolai
Melnikov reports that the famed Russian literary journal "Novyi mir" carries
three substantial pieces of interest to Nabokovians:
1. Svetlana Chekalova. "'First
celebrating the past, then simply cursing it...'" A detailed review comparing
the Boyd and Aleksei Zver'ev' VN biographies.
2. Nikolai Mel'nikov. "A Tale about
How Aleksei Matveevich quarreled with Vl adimir Vladimirovich." A thoughtful
look at Aleksei Zver'ev's VN bio.
3. Sergei Kostyrko. "Nabokov -- the
American Way" An extended review of the Russian translation of Stacy Schiff's
VERA
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