Dear all,
Young Flaubert's favorite authors were Byron
and Rabelais, because they wrote to spite mankind. I don't want
to spite anybody - least of all, the Nabokovians, the lovers of Ada
with no knoweledge of Russian - with my writings, but I confess to a strong
temptation to publish all of my future essays on Ada in Russian -
particularly as there is such a possibility now. I may yield to that temptation
if no one comes to my rescue and helps me to turn my notes and articles
into English. By this I mean not just correcting my "first
drafts" that are even harder to provide than is for me the
writing of the originals (which is not easy, believe me), but translating,
more or less roughly, my Russian texts. In the hope that at least one kind
person will respond to my plea, I offer this brilliant essay on Turgenev in
Ada, "Koe-chto ob otsakh i detiakh, don zhuanakh, floramorakh i
doktorakh v 'Ade'" ("Something about Fathers and Sons, Don Juans,
Floramors and Doctors in Ada"), that can be regarded as a belated
contribution for VN's and a well-timed one for DN's birthday to the
Russian-reading part of the List.
Alexey
Sklyarenko