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Re: Kater Murr
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C. Kunin: Murli-kat'! (to purr in Russian, n'est-ce-pas?). Well, I don't know if E T A Hoffmann (one n or two?) knew Russian or not, but his pussy is indeed a learned Tom -- and not unNabokovian, you may agree - perhaps even a bit Pale Fireish: The Life And Opinions Of the Tomcat Murr together with a fragmentary Biography of Kappelmeister Johannes Kreisler on Random Sheets of Waste Paper is a complex satirical novel by Prussian Romantic-era author E.T.A. Hoffmann. It was first published in 1819-1821 as Lebens-Ansichten des Katers Murr nebst fragmentarischer Biographie des Kapellmeisters Johannes Kreisler in zufälligen Makulaturblättern, in two volumes. A planned third volume was never completed. It was Hoffmann's final novel and is considered his masterpiece. It reflected his concepts of aesthetics, and predated post-modern literary techniques in its unusual structure. Critic Alex Ross writes of the novel, "If the phantasmagoric 'Kater Murr' were published tomorrow as the work of a young Brooklyn hipster, it might be hailed as a tour de force of postmodern fiction."
Jansy Mello: What a find, Carolyn. It seems to anticipate Kinbote's muddling of Zembla and Shade's life in New Wye. I had already posted something about certain similarities and references in the VN-L concerning "Hoffmann's short story 'My Cousin's Corner Window' [ in Berlin, that] is the dominant feature of a "small room with a low ceiling, high above the street" "That is the usual custom of writers and poets," writes Hoffmann. "What does the low ceiling matter? Imagination soars aloft and builds a high and cheerful dome that rises to the radiant blue sky.".and, recently, about the doll Olympia and the Sandman (from Freud's article on the "Uncanny"). Haphazard trouvailles seem to be piling up to validate my suspicion that Nabokov was a Hoffman reader at some time.
Since I used to be a cat-person (now there's Stark in my life, a devilish black shipperke dog) and collected many stories about them, I'll start to read a forgotten collection of ."Feline Fairy Tales" [ The King of the Cats and other... edited by John Richard Stephens, Faber and Faber] following your original push.I wish I could remember the plot of a cat one in Karel Kapek's (or find his book "Nine Fairy Tales and one thrown in for good measure" that's lost in "the burst appendix" of my attic).
Perhaps there are other cats in VN besides Hodges (there's the intriguing cat with celadon eyes that spurns milk in RLSK) Some who understand human language and act as spies all over the house retelling gossip for example, written by ???
It's difficult to forget that Nabokov even read with delight his uncle's collection from La Semaine de Suzette and Bibliothèque de
www.bibliothequedesuzette.com/
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Jansy Mello: What a find, Carolyn. It seems to anticipate Kinbote's muddling of Zembla and Shade's life in New Wye. I had already posted something about certain similarities and references in the VN-L concerning "Hoffmann's short story 'My Cousin's Corner Window' [ in Berlin, that] is the dominant feature of a "small room with a low ceiling, high above the street" "That is the usual custom of writers and poets," writes Hoffmann. "What does the low ceiling matter? Imagination soars aloft and builds a high and cheerful dome that rises to the radiant blue sky.".and, recently, about the doll Olympia and the Sandman (from Freud's article on the "Uncanny"). Haphazard trouvailles seem to be piling up to validate my suspicion that Nabokov was a Hoffman reader at some time.
Since I used to be a cat-person (now there's Stark in my life, a devilish black shipperke dog) and collected many stories about them, I'll start to read a forgotten collection of ."Feline Fairy Tales" [ The King of the Cats and other... edited by John Richard Stephens, Faber and Faber] following your original push.I wish I could remember the plot of a cat one in Karel Kapek's (or find his book "Nine Fairy Tales and one thrown in for good measure" that's lost in "the burst appendix" of my attic).
Perhaps there are other cats in VN besides Hodges (there's the intriguing cat with celadon eyes that spurns milk in RLSK) Some who understand human language and act as spies all over the house retelling gossip for example, written by ???
It's difficult to forget that Nabokov even read with delight his uncle's collection from La Semaine de Suzette and Bibliothèque de
www.bibliothequedesuzette.com/
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/