Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0001880, Mon, 24 Mar 1997 08:20:56 -0800

Subject
Re: Cover Art on VN Paperbacks (fwd) -Reply (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Susan Sweeney <sweeney@holycross.edu>
Nabokov certainly had very strong opinions about the cover illustrations
for his books. The SELECTED LETTERS contains some spirited
correspondence on the subject. My favorite Nabokov paperback,
however, is one of PNIN--not the one Galya Diment mentioned, I don't
think--that describes the novel as one by the author of the sensational
LOLITA, pictures Pnin leering at some co-eds, cites a review that
exhorts everyone to become a "Pnin man," and then selectively quotes,
on the back cover, from the sole passage in the novel that could be
conceived as even remotely racy: the description of Liza kicking off her
shoes and lying on Timofey's bed. I don't have the book in hand as I
write this but will be glad to provide publishing information if anyone
wants it.

Susan Elizabeth Sweeney