Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0011661, Tue, 9 Aug 2005 16:45:56 -0700

Subject
Opening of SPEAK, MEMORY
Date
Body
EDNOTE. Reflections on reading Montaigne in Saint-Petersburg:


Nabokov. "The cradle rocks above the abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness."

Montaigne. "..why do we, from this instant which is but a flash in the infinite course of an eternal night, and so short an interuption of our perpetual and natural condition, death possessing all that passed before and all the future of this moment, and also a good part of the moment itself, derive the title of Being?"

Attachment