Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0004706, Wed, 19 Jan 2000 19:31:09 -0800

Subject
Re: Discount for Nabokov Butterflies for IVNS members (fwd)
Date
Body
**** Brian does not want a discount, he will get complimentary copies for
all his troubles. At any rate, it has been also brought to my attention
that her message did not mention the price. It would otherwise cost $50 --
so they are offering it at $25 to present (and hopefully very nearly
future) IVNS members. GD****

From: Brian Boyd <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>

Dear Galya,

In response to the discount offer: I am of course an interested party, but I
think Nabokovians should know that the book has 800 pages, including something
like 40 pages of peviously unpublished Nabokov fiction (a 30+-page Second
Addendum to The Gift, now called "Father's Butterflies," and the surviving
fragments of his last ever, abandoned, short story "The Admirable Anglewing"
(1959-1966)), nearly 100 pages of previously unpublished VN non-fiction
(musings on evolution and speciation, fragments of the abandoned Butterflies
of Europe, letters), hundreds of pages of previously uncollected VN
Lepidoptera papers, translations of previously untranslated, uncollected, or
even unpublished poems, and an almost complete compendium of lep passages in
VN's fiction, with literary and leppy notes by BB and Robert Michael Pyle, who
also supply an introduction apiece and an annotated list of all Nabokovian
butterfly names.

E.O. Wilson has this to say about the book: "I found this collection of
biographical essays and Nabokoviana
compulsive reading. They portray an emerging great naturalist
called away by his competing literary genius to create a uniquely
beautiful blend of science and art."

As DBJ would say, a must for the shelves of all serious Nabokovians.

Best,
Brian