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Nabokov's "quarrelsome" essay on Gannibal and Pushkin . . .
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[Sandy Klein sends this link to a book review of Hugh Barnes' The Stolen
Prince in yesterday's edition of the New York Sun. - - SES]
[. . .] As Gannibal's great-grandson and first publicist, Pushkin
approached his family history defensively, for Russia was, and is,
xenophobic. In the poet's refashioning, Gannibal became a Negro prince,
the paramour of Paris, and a despised and unhappy phantom of
Shakespeare's own Moor. With his unfinished novella, Pushkin both
immortalized and buried his accomplished African ancestor. Secured in
the annals of Russian literature, Gannibal was consigned to a fairytale.
Vladimir Nabokov launched an assault on the fairytale in an appendix to
his 1956 translation of Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin." His quarrelsome
60-page essay lamented the sloppy state of the chronicles of Gannibal,
finding gross inaccuracies, muddled dates, and, most troubling to the
exacting linguist, appalling grammar. His revelations went a long way
toward establishing the mysterious African as inspiration for Onegin's
brooding isolation, but did not do justice to Gannibal's remarkable
history.
In "The Stolen Prince" (Ecco, 300 pages, $27.95) Mr. Barnes liberates
his subject from Pushkinology [. . .]
Here's a link to the rest of the essay:
http://www.nysun.com/article/36272
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu,chtodel@cox.net
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Prince in yesterday's edition of the New York Sun. - - SES]
[. . .] As Gannibal's great-grandson and first publicist, Pushkin
approached his family history defensively, for Russia was, and is,
xenophobic. In the poet's refashioning, Gannibal became a Negro prince,
the paramour of Paris, and a despised and unhappy phantom of
Shakespeare's own Moor. With his unfinished novella, Pushkin both
immortalized and buried his accomplished African ancestor. Secured in
the annals of Russian literature, Gannibal was consigned to a fairytale.
Vladimir Nabokov launched an assault on the fairytale in an appendix to
his 1956 translation of Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin." His quarrelsome
60-page essay lamented the sloppy state of the chronicles of Gannibal,
finding gross inaccuracies, muddled dates, and, most troubling to the
exacting linguist, appalling grammar. His revelations went a long way
toward establishing the mysterious African as inspiration for Onegin's
brooding isolation, but did not do justice to Gannibal's remarkable
history.
In "The Stolen Prince" (Ecco, 300 pages, $27.95) Mr. Barnes liberates
his subject from Pushkinology [. . .]
Here's a link to the rest of the essay:
http://www.nysun.com/article/36272
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu,chtodel@cox.net
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm