Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0006051, Thu, 28 Jun 2001 14:32:35 -0700

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Fw: Nabokov Sighting
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Bennett" <mab@straussandasher.com>
To: "'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
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> In the July 5 issue of the New York Review of Books Brad Leithauser
reviews
> Sue Halpern's book "Four Wings and A Prayer: Caught in the Mystery of the
> Monarch Butterfly". Given both the subject matter of the book and the
forum
> of the review, it is inevitable that VN should make an appearance, and he
> does; a rather nice one too. When discussing some literary references to
> "aerial plankton" (to borrow the amusing metaphor used by a biologist
quoted
> by Halpern) Leithauser pays the following tribute to VN the literary
> lepidopterist:
>
> "The literary lord of butterflies is of course Vladimir Nabokov, who in
his
> long life pursued lepidoptery as both vocation and avocation, and whose
> descriptions of butterfly pleasures are so dauntingly exquisite as to
strike
> dumb any other observer stirred by a first glimpse of a new swallowtail or
> morpho. In addition to casting a long net, Nabokov throws a long shadow."
>
> The essay contains a few other references to VN; unfortunately, it is not
> available in the online edition of the NYRB. Leithauer's biographical
note
> states that he will soon be publishing a novel in verse, "Darlington's
> Fall," the hero of which "is an imaginary Midwestern lepidopterist".
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