Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0005415, Wed, 26 Jul 2000 17:00:15 -0700

Subject
VN Bibliography: Klassik bez retushi
Date
Body
Subtitled (in Russian) The Literary World on Nabokov's Art. Ed. N. G.
Mel'nikov, Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2000. pp. 682.

Editor N.G. Mel'nikov has produced an extremely useful research tool for
Russian-reading Nabokovians. Many of us have spent an inordinate amount of
time locating and ordering (via Interlibrary Loan) early reviews of and
essays on Nabokov's works--both Russian and English. Mel'nikov has put
together a vast anthology of such "classic" reviews for each of Nabokov's
works. As he points out in his Introduction, the early reviews were produced
under vastly different circumstances from later, more formal studies. the
volume includes most of the VN reviews by G. Adamovich, Eikhenval'd,
Bitsilli, Weidle, Struve, Khodasevich, and so on. Mel'nikov has also
collected and had translated major reviews from non-Russian critics such as
Updike, Burgess, S. Lem, Robbe-Grillet, J.-P. Sartre, etc. Aso included are
some substantial early critical essays, parodies, and excerpts from the
personal correspondence of other writers. In addition, the editor has
suppled many notes identifying people and publications. There is also an
Index of Names.

The series of reviews by a single author, such as Adamovich or Struve, are
a fascinating glimpse of the evolving views of VN throughout his long
career.