Dear Carolyn,
Although I don’t feel any danger of confusing myself with Nabokov, I can identify with him both as a fellow writer, and -- as he was when he lectured on Stevenson -- a mature adult of about fifty years.
Much as I admire VN’s literary art, I don’t feel constrained to adopt all his preferences. I’ve never been much impressed by Dead Souls, but Madame Bovary is a masterpiece, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde isn’t. It’s a great story but, as I wrote last night, it’s nowhere near The Death of Ivan Ilich when considered as a precursor to Pale Fire.
All the best,
Andrew Brown
On 10/10/06 12:14 AM, "Carolyn Kunin" <chaiselongue@EARTHLINK.NET> wrote:
Dear Andrew,
At the risk of flogging a dying horse, let me say that you continue to confuse VN with AB. VN was a mature adult of about fifty years when he wrote his lecture on J & H and his opinion at that time was that the story was of the "same order of art as Madame Bovary and Dead Souls." This can hardly be the result of "boyhood reading."
A versipel is not "a beast" at all. Neither is it a word invented by VN as someone else suggested. You will find it in "his" dictionary (Webster's 3rd). It is a generic term for beings that change their nature, from human to animal only for example, as a werewolf. It is a creature that has a double nature. It is not necessarily evil or even necessarily demonic. It is a synonym of "changeling" - - the same word in Latin dress.
Carolyn
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