Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0024688, Sat, 12 Oct 2013 20:23:09 -0300

Subject
LRL - commentary n.59- I, to the Tolstoy lecture
Date
Body
JM: Nabokov added several commentary notes to his lecture on Tolstoy (cf.p.210- ). Most are very elucidative, others are quite picturesque and meticulous. One of these remains a puzzle to me since it was not only very superficial but, to my eyes, also quite unnecessary.
In his commentary (indicating p.51), Nabokov presents Plato's "Symposium" dialogues about love "culled from an old edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica."
I find it hard to believe that his students would need such a vague introduction to Plato to be able to follow Tolstoy's Anna Karenin. Did Nabokov plan any special project about the different kinds of "love," at that time, of the kind that inspired "Lolita," or "Ada", so that his brief "Plato" commentary serves as a hint about his novelistic ambitions?

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