Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0014049, Mon, 13 Nov 2006 12:04:45 EST

Subject
Re: Dieter Zimmer on date palms
Date
Body

In a message dated 13/11/2006 16:48:39 GMT Standard Time,
NABOKV-L@HOLYCROSS.EDU writes:

It is unlikely Kinbote ever
went to look at the famous trees himself (unless there were young
gardeners around),


Well, on p.228, PF, Penguin, 1991, the nasty commentator says of the gifted
gardener that:

"He stood at the top of a green ladder attending to the sick branch of a
grateful tree in one of the most famous avenues in Appalachia. .... We
conversed, a little shyly, he above, I below."

I concede that Kinbote may not actually have been looking at the trees, or
could name their species accurately, although he did take the trouble to
enumerate "a few kinds". Or is the whole of the note to line 998 pure invention
from beginning to end, composed in vacuo and in pensive mood, an emotion
recollected in tranquillity, flashing within his inward eye?

Charles




Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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






Attachment