Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0017456, Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:23:54 +0000

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Re: Fw: [NABOKOV-L] HEARIING & SIGHTING
Date
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> Question posed last week on the BBC TV Mastermind Quiz:
>
> ³Which 20th century novel starts
> ŒLight of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul?¹²

Contestant: ³LADY CHATTERLEY¹S LOVER.²
[Gasps of disbelieving horror!]

Quiz master, John Humphrys: ³No. Lolita.²

-------
NATIONAL REVIEW, Nov 17 2008:

Review by John Derbyshire of two new Samuel Johnson biographies (by Jeffrey
Meyers and Peter Martin). John discusses the epilogue to Meyers¹ ³Samuel
Johnson: The Struggle² which deals with SJ¹s influence on six later writers,
including Woolf, Beckett and Nabokov.

³Nabokov coped better [than Beckett] though more subtly, with Johnson¹s huge
shadow. His strange 1962 novel ŒPale Fire¹ is, Meyers tells us, shot through
with Johnsonian and Boswellian allusions. We get over seven pages on this. I
should like to read ŒPale Fire¹ again before passing judgement on Meyers¹s
interpretation. It is Nabokov¹s most playful, most convoluted novel (which
is saying a lot) -- THE KIND OF THING AN INGENIOUS THEORIST MIGHT READ
ALMOST ANYTHING INTO.²

These are MY CAPS, triggered by the fact that I¹m in media res enthralled
with Priscilla Meyer¹s [no relation to Jeffrey Meyers!] FIND WHAT THE
SAILOR HAS HIDDEN (Wesleyan Univ. Press, 1988). ³Ingenious Theory² is the
perfect description of Priscilla¹s mix¹n¹match allusion-juggling. More anon.

Stan Kelly-Bootle




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