Dear Carolyn,

             If you can't recognize a knife job by a reviewer, Nemser, intent upon heaping dung and snide innuendo upon
             Nabokov to make his own name, then your finding that the review is "flawless" is itself fatally flawed.

             By the way, Vladimir Markov was my beloved teacher also, and in the year I was his research assistant
             he never claimed to have found Derzhavin's acrostic (Ruina chti). It surely had been noticed by many
             in the last couple of centuries.

             Jerry Katsell

Nabokv-L wrote:


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] The New Republic review of Verses and Versions]
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:20:30 -0800
From: Carolyn Kunin <chaiselongue@earthlink.net>
To: Vladimir Nabokov Forum <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
References: <49A540C7.1060803@utk.edu>


To the List,

After all the brouhaha lately regarding the Nemser article I read it
and find it flawless. Although Alexey and I disagree on this point,
Nabokov was not without fault and his inability to translate Evgeny
Onegin is his greatest failure. The notes and index are among his
triumphs, but the translation itself is a dud.

As to the appropriateness of the title, I'd like to remind all the
horror-stricken that Nabokov invented Van the Impaler and the obscene
images he created in Ada are far worse than Nemser's or the editors'
of The New Republic. Personally I'm not sure Nabokov wouldn't be a bit
pleased - - but who knows.

I do wish that the idolatry of Nabokov would take a rest so that a
reasoned appraisal could begin - - at least on this List.

Carolyn Kunin

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