Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0000145, Mon, 15 Nov 1993 10:47:17 -0800

Subject
BRITISH NABOKOVS REPLY (fwd)
Date
Body
Below is Chaz Nicol's reply to Charles Amos' query of Nov. 11. Other
responses?
My own reaction is that "Middle" Burgess is probably the best answer, although
his later stuff is much less technically flashy. AS far as I recall, in
both volumes of Burgess's biography he mentions VN only in the context of
the poem he (Burgess) wrote for the NOrthwestern TRIQUARTERLY issue
dedicated to VN. Burgess has, of course, written several reviews of VN
novels. The Editor
P.S. VN & Burgess might be a good article topic.



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 15 Nov 93 12:02:18 EST
From: EJNICOL@root.indstate.edu
To: NABOKV-L%UCSBVM.BITNET@cmsa.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: BRITISH NABOKOVS REPLY (fwd)


I would suggest that the early-middle novels of Anthony Burgess were
somewhat Nabokov-like, especially the first Enderby novel and, for
quite a number of reasons including Russian puns, A Clockwork Orange.
(Remember that Stanley Kubrick--who loved to play speed-chess--
filmed Clockwork Orange soon after Lolita; maybe Kubrick at that time
could be considered a Nabokov-like filmmaker.) The most obvious
connection between N and Burgess is through Joyce, on whom Burgess
wrote several books.

Possibly Joyce Cary's wonderful The Horse's Mouth might be read as
Nabokovian as well. This novel stands out from the rest of Cary's
work because he attempts to describe the world as it is viewed by
Gulley Jimson (I may not be spelling this correctly), an old and
slightly mad painter, which forces Cary's style into what I would
call Nabokovian directions.

Charles Nicol