Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0006209, Wed, 14 Nov 2001 09:38:49 -0800

Subject
Translating VN: The Servile Path
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. NABOKV-L thanks Suellen Stringer-Hye for calling attention to Scammell's fascinating essay.

> ------------------------------------------
> ------- Forwarded message follows -------
> From: Suellen Stringer-Hye <Stringers@LIBRARY.Vanderbilt.edu>
>
>
> I just ran across Michael Scammell's very charming account of youth spent translating Nabokov's _The Gift_ and _The Defense_ in the May 2001 Harper's. (see below for excerpts) Scammell is currently on the faculty at the Columbia University School of the Arts. In addition to translating works by Nabokov, Tolstoy and Dostoyevski, he is the author of Solzhenitsyn, A Biography and is currently writing a biography of Arthur Koestler. An audio version, originally recorded at the PEN American Center Centenary Celebration (5/15/99), can be found at
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/04/25/specials/nabokov.html
>
> Michael Scammell, "The Servile Path", HARPER'S, May 2001
>
> In February 1960, Anna unexpectedly invited me to dinner. It was a unique occasion. Despite our many friendly chats, I had never before been through the door that led to her parlor and private living quarters. On the night in question I knocked on her door, entered, and was solemnly introduced to a tall avuncular gentleman with an Edwardian air, a plummy English lisp, and a firm handshake, and to a perfectly coiffed, petite, whitehaired lady, who looked perfectly elegant in the perfect French manner-- Mr. and Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov. An immensely tall young man, about my age, uncoiled himself from a low armchair and introduced himself as their son, Dmitri.
>
> It would be nice to say that I have a vivid memory of that first meeting, but I don't. I do remember deep armchairs, an oriental rug, vases of flowers, and a table set with fine china. But the rest is a blur. Nabokov was basking in the afterglow of his huge success with Lolita. The novel had turned him into a world-class celebrity and had made him rich. Stanley Kubrick had paid an enormous sum for the movie rights, and Nabokov had just returned to New York from five luxurious months in Europe-his first visit there since his hasty escape from the Nazis in 1940. He was now on his way to Hollywood to write a script for Kubrick. More importantly for my immediate future, Nabokov had just come to an arrangement with Putnam to publish translations of several of his early Russian novels in English.
>
> Suellen Stringer-Hye Jean and Alexander Heard Library Vanderbilt University stringers@library.vanderbilt.edu