Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0002123, Thu, 15 May 1997 15:37:19 -0700

Subject
Re: VN & Robbe-Grillet's _Project for a Revolution_ (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. On 28 April, Matt Morris sent in a posting commenting on
parallels between Robbe-Grillet's _Project for a Revolution in New YorK_
and VN's _Transparent things_. In passing along this item I mentioned the
story of a lunch in which R-G's actress wife "played" Lolita and the
(taken-in) waiter inquired "Et un Coca-Cola pour mademoiselle?" (Boyd II,
398). Below, Prof. Maurice Couturier, the leading French Nabokovian and
editor of the forthcoming Pleiade edition of VN in French, offers the
following comment. NABOKV-L thanks Prof. Couturier.

------------------------------------



I spent a whole day in Nice with Robbe-Grillet ten years ago and asked him
about this lunch or drink business with the Nabokovs, with the waiter's
question about "la jeune demoiselle (or jeune fille, I don't remember
which)". He said then that his wife had not deliberately dressed as a
Lolita but that the waiter's question did make them hilarious.

Maurice


---------------------------------------------------------------
Universite de Nice - Sophia Antipolis
U.F.R. Lettres et Sciences Humaines
C.R.E.L.A.
Maurice Couturier
phone : (33) 93.37.53.46
email : couturier@unice.fr