Ljuba Tarvi - "Nabokov insists in both
Pnin and Lectures that “The action of the book starts in February, 1872, and
goes on to July, 1876: in all, four years and a half” (Lectures, 148). A careful
examinations of the novel makes, however, it possible to argue that the action
starts in ‘mid-winter’, either in December 1873 or in January 1874, and goes on
till the unquestionable (the Crimean war) end in July 1876, which reduces
Nabokov’s timing by at least two years. As can be argued, not only the year of
the beginning, which is 1874 rather than 1872, and not only the month, which is
December rather than February, but even the day, which might be Thursday rather
than Friday, could be disputed.Sorry for self-reference: Ljuba Tarvi, 2010. «В
поисках замкового камня: загадки времени в «Анне Карениной» Толстого» [In Search
of the Key Stone: Time Riddles in Tolstoy's «Anna Karenina»]. Helsinki:
Literarus (3) 2011, 93-96.
JM: How do you interpret
Nabokov's observation about "relativity in literature" when he
returns to the theme, when Pnin adds:" 'You will notice,' he said, 'that there is a significant difference
between Lyovin's spiritual time and Vronski's physical one. In mid book, Lyovin
and Kitty lag behind Vronski and Anna by a whole year. When, on a Sunday evening
in May 1876, Anna throws herself under that freight train, she has existed more
than four years since the beginning of the novel, but in the case of the
Lyovins, during the same period, 1872 to 1876, hardly three years have elapsed.
It is the best example of relativity in literature that is known to me'."
? The discrepancy between "physical and spiritual time" that engenders the
aforementioned relativity might have arisen simply because
Nabokov chose to ignore the different arguments about Tolstoy's novel
timing?