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Re: Request for source of quotation
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Anthony Stadlen:On the cover of the 2008 Oneworld Classics edition of the English translation of Robbe-Grillet's La Joalousie [Jealousy] is a claim that Vladimir Nabokov said La Jalousie was "The finest novel about love since Proust".I am familiar with Nabokov's praise of Robbe-Grillet in Strong Opinions, but I have never noticed this particular assertion, nor can I find it on a quick re-scan of its pages. I do not think I would have forgotten this if I had read it.I should be most grateful if any kind person could tell me where and when Nabokov said this, if indeed he did.Incidentally, since in a filmed discussion, available online, he agreed with Lionel Trilling that Lolita was about love, if he did say this about Robbe-Grillet's book it would imply that he was saying La Jalousie was a finer novel, or at least a finer novel about love, than Lolita. This would be remarkable, if true.
JM: While I was perusing the letters written by VN-E.Wilson, searching for Wilson's comments related to "obsolete" words, I kept hoping to find in there the quotation you asked for. I surmised that, should VN have written that Jalousie was "the finest novel about love since Proust," he might have set this down before he wrote "Lolita," therefore he wouldn't be diminishing his "novel about love" in his appraisal of "Jalousie".
Unfortunately I could not locate any quote and the reference to Robbe-Grillet comes later (January 19,1960m page 364) He wrote: "The best French writer is Robbe-Grillet whom we met in Paris. He is being incomprehensibly lumped together with all sorts of Butors and Sarrautes by many French critics." I might have overlooked earlier mentions, it is easy to get side-tracked when following the exciting exchanges bt. Bunny and Volodya*. I'll try to follow another hunch (related to a book in French dealing with Sartre's negative appraisal of one of Nabokov's novels).
btw: If Steve Blackwell concurs with me, I'll be copying down various of the VN-EW exchanges concerning metrics and poetry, for easy reference by the List, in other future postings.
A first tidbit (page 204/05, Dec. 1,1946) when Wilson writes about Malraux, whose inaccuracies concerning the glow of a cigarette tip, among others, were cruelly derided by VN:
"He is surely the only first-rate imaginative genius the French have produced since Proust. Inaccuracies, clichés and clumsiness do not in themselves invalidate a writer. You and I, besides, differ completely, not only about Malraux, but also about Dostoevsky, Greek drama, Lenin, Freud, and a lot of other things - about whihch, I'm sure [we] will never be reconciled; so that we'd better, I suppose, stick to the more profitable discussion of Pushkin, Flaubert, Proust, Joyce, etc.... malicious humor ...hasn't necessarily anything to do with first-rate literature."
And... a provocation (found on page 235) from Toynbee's review of the English edition of "Three Russian Poets" :
"Mr. Nabokov is a deft and loyal translator. He has not the dubious advantage of being himself a poet."
Karlinski adds in his note that since Toynbee was "also highly enthusiastic about Oliver Elton's version of Eugene Onegin, his judgement could hardly have mattered much to Nabokov."
* The informative comments by the editor, Simon Karlinsky, are a treat.
In the Fall issue of "The Nabokovian," we can read B.Boyd's thoroughly researched and admiring obituary of SK, and another of Alfred Appel Jr.
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JM: While I was perusing the letters written by VN-E.Wilson, searching for Wilson's comments related to "obsolete" words, I kept hoping to find in there the quotation you asked for. I surmised that, should VN have written that Jalousie was "the finest novel about love since Proust," he might have set this down before he wrote "Lolita," therefore he wouldn't be diminishing his "novel about love" in his appraisal of "Jalousie".
Unfortunately I could not locate any quote and the reference to Robbe-Grillet comes later (January 19,1960m page 364) He wrote: "The best French writer is Robbe-Grillet whom we met in Paris. He is being incomprehensibly lumped together with all sorts of Butors and Sarrautes by many French critics." I might have overlooked earlier mentions, it is easy to get side-tracked when following the exciting exchanges bt. Bunny and Volodya*. I'll try to follow another hunch (related to a book in French dealing with Sartre's negative appraisal of one of Nabokov's novels).
btw: If Steve Blackwell concurs with me, I'll be copying down various of the VN-EW exchanges concerning metrics and poetry, for easy reference by the List, in other future postings.
A first tidbit (page 204/05, Dec. 1,1946) when Wilson writes about Malraux, whose inaccuracies concerning the glow of a cigarette tip, among others, were cruelly derided by VN:
"He is surely the only first-rate imaginative genius the French have produced since Proust. Inaccuracies, clichés and clumsiness do not in themselves invalidate a writer. You and I, besides, differ completely, not only about Malraux, but also about Dostoevsky, Greek drama, Lenin, Freud, and a lot of other things - about whihch, I'm sure [we] will never be reconciled; so that we'd better, I suppose, stick to the more profitable discussion of Pushkin, Flaubert, Proust, Joyce, etc.... malicious humor ...hasn't necessarily anything to do with first-rate literature."
And... a provocation (found on page 235) from Toynbee's review of the English edition of "Three Russian Poets" :
"Mr. Nabokov is a deft and loyal translator. He has not the dubious advantage of being himself a poet."
Karlinski adds in his note that since Toynbee was "also highly enthusiastic about Oliver Elton's version of Eugene Onegin, his judgement could hardly have mattered much to Nabokov."
* The informative comments by the editor, Simon Karlinsky, are a treat.
In the Fall issue of "The Nabokovian," we can read B.Boyd's thoroughly researched and admiring obituary of SK, and another of Alfred Appel Jr.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/