Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0000381, Tue, 15 Nov 1994 13:07:06 -0800

Subject
Romanticism Addendum (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Dieter E. Zimmer <100126.2576@compuserve.com>

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In my last missive about my difficulties with the "romantic novel", I forgot to
mention one thing. In his Russian *Lolita*, Nabokov renders the Hollander
Formula by "...romane s romanticheskim romanom...", taking advantage of the fact
that "roman" in Russian is both, novel and love-affair. However, as the pun is
so irresistible, I suppose one should not take this rendering too literally when
trying to figure out what Hollander may have had in mind. On the other hand,
this homonymy may have woven the idea of "amour-passion" much more intimately
into VN's understanding of the word "romantic" than any of the national concepts
of romanticism as a literary epoch.
-- Dieter E.Zimmer --