Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0000787, Thu, 26 Oct 1995 11:49:28 -0700

Subject
Re: VN-GREs (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITORIAL NOTE. Jerry Goodenough (UK) queries the meaning of the term GRE
used in Priscilla Meyer's recent posting reproduced below. For the benefit
of NABOKV-L's numerous non-American subscribers, an explanation may be in
order. The GRE is the Graduate Record Exam which most aspiring graduates
must take (and pass) if they are to be accepted for post-graduate studies.
One can only rejoice at the news that American graduate students in
English are supposed to know who Nabokov is.
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From: J.GOODENOUGH <J.Goodenough@uea.ac.uk>
To: NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.ucsb.edu
Subject: Re: VN-GREs (fwd)

> EDITORIAL NOTE. Priscilla Meyer, originator ofthe gem below, is the
> author of _Find What the Sailor Has Hidden_ (Middletown: Wesleyan UP,
> 1988), an essential volume for all student of VN's _Pale Fire_.
> ---------------------------
> From: Priscilla Meyer <pmeyer@MAIL.WESLEYAN.EDU>
>
> -------------------
> On this year's English GREs there was one question
> whose correct answer was Nabokov, and two to which Nabokov was the
> incorrect answer. Harold Bloom was another correct answer.

Please forgive the ignorance of an English academic, but what are GREs? And
how can Nabokov be the incorrect answer to only two of the questions? He'd
be the incorrect answer to just about _all_ the questions I set...

Jerry Goodenough (philosopher)
School of Economic & Social Studies
University of East Anglia
Norwich NR4 7TJ
England
E-MAIL: j.goodenough@uea.ac.uk
==============================