Subject
VN & Ageev's _Novel with Cocaine_ (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOte. Yuri (Zav'yalov-)Leving's recent Nabokov
publications include: "Ubit' Drakona: Georgievskii kompleks v rasskaze
Nabokova 'Vesna v Fial'ye" [To slay the dragon: the St. George Complex in
VN's "Spring in Fialta] in _Russian Language Journal_ LII, 171-3 (1998)
and "Literaturnoyi podtekst Palestinskogo pis'ma Vladimria Nabokova" in
_Novyi Zhurnal_ #214, March 1999, pp. 116-133. The last is a carefully
annotated presentation of a long 1937 letter from VN to his Tenishchev
schoolmate Samuil Rozov in Palestine -- a fascinating document.
---------------------------------
From: Yuri Leving
(mslyuri@mscc.huji.ac.il) Hebrew University of Jerusalem"
Just to comment: the real name of M. Agheyev (and not Agayev - in Russian
it is AGEEV) is Mark Levi. He was not buried in Istanbul, but died at the
age of 75 in Yerevan, Armenia (1973). He lived there the rest of his life
after returning to the USSR from Turkey. The correspondence between M.
Levi and N. Otsup, the editor of "Chisla" journal, discussing the terms of
publication of "Novel with Cocaine" and the pseudonim itself, was printed
in Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie (24, 1997). Even after the true authorship
is revealed, I must confess that Agheyev-Levi's novel is first-rate
literature indeed. Were it possible, I would be keen to know what Nabokov
himself thought of his poor fellow emigre's work.
Donald Barton Johnson wrote:
> A few years ago a Russian novel by one M. Agayev resurfaced in PAris where
> it had appeared in an emigre periodical in the thirties. The reappearance
> was connected with Nikita Struve's theory that the novel's true author
> was not the long-vanished and unknown Agayev but Nabokov. The book was
> promptly republished and translated into English by Michael Heim. A furor
> ensued between pro- and anti-Struvites. At length it was established that
> Agayev was real, had written the book (possibly in poor imitation of VN's
> style), and now lies buried in a grave in Istanbul.
>
> Penguin is now reissuing the English version with a tortured (and
> apparently long-overdue) introduction by no less than Will Self, a
> first-rate youngish British writer (see, for example, his recent GREAT
> APES). The TLS of 18 June 1999 column NB carries quotes from Self's
> introductory essay. I lack the ambition to retype the squib but it is
> truly bizarre. Perhaps there is some dedicated soul out there....
>
> D. Barton Johnson
> Department of Germanic, Slavic and Semitic Studies
> Phelps Hall
> University of California at Santa Barbara
> Santa Barbara, CA 93106
> Phone and Fax: (805) 687-1825
> Home Phone: (805) 682-4618