Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0006083, Fri, 20 Jul 2001 18:57:32 -0700

Subject
SPEAK, Memory photos
Date
Body
Continuing my way through Sp,M, I notice an oddity. In my 1966 hardback
opposite p. 128 there is a photo of VN's father and mother on the terrace
of Vyra in 1900. The photo caption ends "The birches and firs of the park
behind my parents belong to the same backdrop as the foliage of the
photograph facing p. 192."

In fact the photo facing p. 192 is of VN's mother and her brother (VN's
"Uncle Ruka") sitting on a bench on the terrace of his chateau in the
Pyrenees in 1913. The background is French scrub (what, I assume is called
'maquis'). So the foliage in the photo is NOT the same as that of the first
picture.

I suspect that VN intended to refer to the photo facing 160 showing his
family sitting in the garden at Vyra a couple of large trees just in back
of the figures and several others in the obscure background. The large tree
to the right certainly appears to be a birch and perhaps the one on the
left as well.

I note that the Library of America edition (vol. I) duplicates the apparent
error: pages 441, 528, & 472. I have not checked the newest separate
edition which includes the earlier omitted XVIth chapter.

Scholarship (of the most trivial sort) Marches On!