Dear List,

Alberto Manguel in his book " A Reading Diary - a Year of favourite Books" (2004) made two passing references to Nabokov.

Part II written in January 2003 ( while discussing Don Quixote) and May 2003 ( writing about Machado de Assis "Brás Cubas", in the part he made a list of quotes from famous insomniacs - he chose Pnin).

I´m reading a translation in Portuguese, so I offer no quotes, only the reference.

The two mentions of VN are slight, almost "neutral".
I found them intriguing because Manguel was discussing authors indirectly connected with Nabokov ( H.G.Wells, F-R Chateaubriand, Goethe, Cervantes...) and the other names he mentioned came with critical details ( Pynchon, Sterne).

Beside the quote from insominac Pnin, the other mention contrasts Cervantes ( whom he describes as seeming to have been invented by his novel and less real than Don Quixote) to authors that are "more or less recognizable as flesh and blood writers such as Goethe, Melville, Jane Austen, Dickens and Nabokov".

If I remember correctly Manguel´s comments on Nabokov ( "Tearing Dom Quixote") have already been discussed in our list.