Subject
Nabokov sighting
From
Date
Body
Stanley Wells, rev. of Arthur Phillips, The Tragedy of Arthur. The New York Review of Books 58.16 27 October 2011. 63-66:
"[. . . ] Arthur Phillips's wonderfully intricate, Nabokovian novel The Tragedy of Arthur composed in the form of an edition [. . .] of a previously unknown Shakespeare play [. . . ]" (63). The Tragedy of Arthur is an invented text surrounded by academic, or faux-academic, commentary. (I have obtained The Tragedy of Arthur but have not yet had the time to read it.)
Wells's "Nabokovian" primarily alludes to Pale Fire, of course, but I think The Tragedy of Arthur also harkens back to Bend Sinister, IMO Nabokov's most underappreciated work. Bend Sinister's Chapter 7, in the guise of anti-Stalinist satire, contains a delightful parody of Hamlet, which, BTW, antedates Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. And whenever academic parody arises, perhaps there is a distant connection to Pnin.
Eric Hyman
Professor of English
Assistant Chair
Graduate Coordinator
Department of English
Fayetteville State University
1200 Murchison Road
Fayetteville, NC 28301-4252
(910) 672-1901
ehyman@uncfsu.edu
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/
"[. . . ] Arthur Phillips's wonderfully intricate, Nabokovian novel The Tragedy of Arthur composed in the form of an edition [. . .] of a previously unknown Shakespeare play [. . . ]" (63). The Tragedy of Arthur is an invented text surrounded by academic, or faux-academic, commentary. (I have obtained The Tragedy of Arthur but have not yet had the time to read it.)
Wells's "Nabokovian" primarily alludes to Pale Fire, of course, but I think The Tragedy of Arthur also harkens back to Bend Sinister, IMO Nabokov's most underappreciated work. Bend Sinister's Chapter 7, in the guise of anti-Stalinist satire, contains a delightful parody of Hamlet, which, BTW, antedates Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. And whenever academic parody arises, perhaps there is a distant connection to Pnin.
Eric Hyman
Professor of English
Assistant Chair
Graduate Coordinator
Department of English
Fayetteville State University
1200 Murchison Road
Fayetteville, NC 28301-4252
(910) 672-1901
ehyman@uncfsu.edu
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/