Stalking Nabokov : selected essays

473 Pages·2011·12.087 MB·English

by  Nabokov, Vladimir V., Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, Boyd, Brian, Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich

S
AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-ONE
, Brian Boyd
PRAISE FOR STALKING NABOKOV T
wrote a thesis on Vladimir Nabokov that the famous
A author called “brilliant.” After gaining exclusive
“This book is a real treasure. It represents a considerable range of work by the author of
access to the writer’s archives, he wrote a two-part,
one of the great biographies of the late twentieth century, who is also a lucid and consis-
L award-winning biography, Vladimir Nabokov: The Rus-
tently engaged and engaging critic. A remarkable read—all readers and scholars of Vladi-
sian Years (1990) and Vladimir Nabokov: The American
mir Nabokov will need this book.”
K
—MICHAEL WOOD, Princeton University
Years (1991). This collection features essays written
by Boyd since completing the biography, incorporat-
“Brian Boyd is, without question, the foremost single authority on Vladimir Nabokov’s life I
ing material he gleaned from his research as well as
and art and has been generally considered such ever since the publication of his magiste-
N
rial two-volume critical biography, Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years and Vladimir Nabo- new discoveries and formulations.
S T A L K I N G
kov: The American Years. Not only is anything that Boyd writes about Nabokov significant,
G
BRIAN BOYD
is University Distinguished Profes- but his study of Nabokov is remarkably dynamic—there’s just no other word for it. Stalking Boyd confronts Nabokov’s life, career, and legacy; his
sor of English at the University of Auckland. His work Nabokov tells a fascinating story of continual intellectual rediscovery and of Boyd’s own art, science, and thought; his subtle humor and puzzle-

development as reader, student, literary sleuth, biographer, critic, colleague, collaborator,
on American, Brazilian, English, Greek, Irish, New like storytelling; his complex psychological portraits;
N
mentor, and, best of all, rereader.”
Zealand, and Russian literature, from epics to com- and his inheritance from, reworking of, and affinities
ics, has appeared in seventeen languages and has —SUSAN ELIZABETH SWEENEY, College of the Holy Cross, president of the International Vladimir with Shakespeare, Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Machado de
Nabokov Society and co-moderator of the Vladimir Nabokov Electronic Forum (NABOKV-L) A
won awards on four continents. He is the author of Assis. Boyd offers new ways of reading Nabokov’s best
Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years and Vladimir B N A B O K O V English-language works: Lolita, Pale Fire, Ada, and the
PRAISE FOR BRIAN BOYD
Nabokov: The American Years, books on Pale Fire unparalleled autobiography, Speak, Memory, and he
and Ada, and the enormous AdaOnline. He has edited O discloses otherwise unknown information about the
“At the end of the twentieth century, Vladimir Nabokov was judged as one of the ten greatest
Nabokov’s English fiction, autobiography, butterfly author’s world. Sharing his personal reflections, Boyd
writers in the world of that century. And I can confirm that the two best works ever written
writings, and verse translations and is now editing K recounts the adventures, hardships, and revelations
on Nabokov—anywhere in the world—are Brian Boyd’s two-volume account of Nabokov’s
a collection of the author’s letters to his wife. Also of researching Nabokov’s biography and his unusual
life and work. In these volumes, the specifics of Nabokov’s life are thorough and precisely
known for his evolutionary and cognitive work, he is correct, and the description, evaluation, and interpretation of all of Nabokov’s writings re- O finds in the archives, including materials still awaiting
the author of On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cog- main to this day the finest ever written. All Nabokov scholars must use Boyd’s work and in- publication. The first to focus on Nabokov’s metaphys-
BRIAN BOYD
nition, and Fiction and the forthcoming Why Lyrics terpretations as a basis in order to go forward from any other perspective. So without ques- V ics, Boyd cautions against their being used as the key
Last: Evolution, Cognition, and Shakespeare’s Son- tion, he is the greatest Nabokov scholar in the world.” to unlock all of the author’s secrets, showing instead
nets and is coeditor of Evolution, Literature, and Film: —STEPHEN JAN PARKER, University of Kansas, founding editor of The Nabokovian BRIAN the many other rooms in Nabokov’s castle of fiction
and author of Understanding Vladimir Nabokov
A Reader. He is currently working on a biography of that need exploring, such as his humor, narrative
BOYD
the philosopher Karl Popper. invention, and psychological insight into characters
ISBN: 978-0-231-15856-5 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS / NEW YORK
and readers alike. Appreciating Nabokov as novelist,
CUP.COLUMBIA.EDU
memoirist, poet, translator, scientist, and individual,
9 780231 158565
JACKET DESIGN BY JENNIFER HEUER PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
Boyd helps us understand more than ever the author’s
Cover photo ”Vladimir Nabokov Catching a
Butterfly” by Carl Mydans COLUMBIA multifaceted genius.
Stalking Nabokov
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Stalking Nabokov

s e l e c te d e s s ays
Brian Boyd
Columbia University Press New York
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Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2011 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Boyd, Brian, 1952–
Stalking Nabokov : selected essays / Brian Boyd.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-15856-5 (cloth : acid-free paper)
ISBN 978-0-231-53029-3 (e-book)
1. Nabokov, Vladimar Vladimirovich, 1899–1977—
Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.
PG3476.N3Z587 2011
813'.54—dc22 2011008348
Columbia University Press books are printed
on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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To Bronwen
and to my friends in the Nabokov world
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Introduction xiii
Nabokov: The Writer’s Life and the Life Writer
1. A Centennial Toast (1999) 3
2. A Biographer’s Life (2001) 8
3. Who Is “My Nabokov”? (2007) 19
Nabokov’s Manuscripts and Books
4. The Nabokov Biography and the Nabokov Archive (1992) 25
5. From the Nabokov Archive: Nabokov’s Literary Legacy (2009) 40
Nabokov’s Metaphysics
6. Retrospects and Prospects (2001) 57
7. Nabokov’s Afterlife (2002) 66
Nabokov’s Butterflies
8. Nabokov, Literature, Lepidoptera (2000) 73
9. Netting Nabokov: Review of Dieter E. Zimmer,
A Guide to Nabokov’s Butterflies and Moths, 2001 (2001) 100
Nabokov as Psychologist
10. The Psychological Work of Fictional Play (2010) 109
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Nabokov and the Origins and Ends of Stories
11. Stacks of Stories, Stories of Stacks (2010) 123
Nabokov as Writer
12. Nabokov’s Humor (1996) 145
13. Nabokov as Storyteller (2002) 157
14. Nabokov’s Transition from Russian to English:
Repudiation or Evolution? (2007) 176
Nabokov and Others
15. Nabokov, Pushkin, Shakespeare: Genius, Generosity,
and Gratitude in The Gift and Pale Fire (1999) 203
16. Nabokov as Verse Translator: Introduction to
Verses and Versions (2008) 214
17. Tolstoy and Nabokov (1993) 229
18. Nabokov and Machado de Assis (2009) 248
Nabokov Works
19. Speak, Memory: The Life and the Art (1990) 265
20. S peak, Memory: Nabokov, Mother, and Lovers:
The Weave of the Magic Carpet (1999) 276
21. Lolita: Scene and Unseen (2006) 288
22. Even Homais Nods: Nabokov’s Fallibility;
Or, How to Revise Lolita (1995) 297
23. Literature, Pattern, Lolita; Or, Art, Literature, Science (2008) 320
24. “Pale Fire”: Poem and Pattern (2010) 336
25. Ada: The Bog and the Garden; Or, Straw, Fluff, and Peat:
Sources and Places in Ada (2004) 360
26. A Book Burner Recants: The Original of Laura (2010) 385
Notes 397
Bibliography 423
Index 437
viii CONTENTS
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank the late Vladimir Nabokov for giving readers, and espe-
cially this reader, such pleasure, the late Véra Nabokov for inviting me to
sort out her husband’s archives and for trusting me enough to tolerate my
researching his biography; and Dmitri Nabokov and the late Elena Sikorski
for their support, hospitality, and friendship, and Dmitri also for permis-
sion to quote all unpublished Nabokov material.
I would like to thank the following writers, editors, publishers, colleagues,
students, and friends for inviting me to contribute to conferences, journals,
books, talks, or discussions, or for ideas or feedback, or for giving me per-
mission to reproduce the material that follows: Martin Amis, Harold Augen-
braum (then of Mercantile Library of New York), André Bernard (then of
Harcourt), Marijeta Bozovic (then of Ulbandus), Matthew Brillinger, Lisa
Browar (then of the New York Public Library), Patricia Carr Brückmann
(Trinity College, University of Toronto), Linda Corman (Trinity College
Library, University of Toronto), Mo Cohen (Gingko Press), Julian Connolly,
Peter Craven (then of Scripsi), Galya Diment, Alexander Dolinin, Kristin
Eliasberg (then of PEN Center, New York), George Gibian, Jane Grayson
(then of SEES, University of London), R. S. Gwynn, Jean Holabird, Don Bar-
ton Johnson (including as editor of Nabokov Studies), Kurt Johnson, Frederic
R. Karl (Bibliography and Source Studies), Zoran Kuzmanovich (including as
editor of Nabokov Studies), Shoko Miura (Nabokov Society of Japan), Akiko
Nakata (Nabokov Society of Japan), Fred Neubauer (Einhard Foundation),
Will Norman, Mitsuyoshi Numano (Nabokov Society of Japan), Stephen Jan
Parker (including as editor of The Nabokovian), Rodney Phillips (then of the
New York Public Library), Robert Michael Pyle, Stanley J. Rabinowitz, Stan-
islas Shvabrin, Claudio Soares, Vadim Stark (then of the Institute of Russian
Literature and Art, St. Petersburg), Mio Suda (Gunzo), Anthony Uhlmann
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