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Complete article at the following URL:
   http://becomingjane.blogspot.com/2008/04/vladimir-nabokov-on-jane-austen-and.html 

Saturday, 19 April 2008

Vladimir Nabokov on Jane Austen and Mansfield Park

The truth is that great novels are great fairy tales – and the novels in this series (Lectures on Literature) are supreme fairy tales. - Vladimir Nabokov
 
I stumbled across Vladimir Nabokov’s Lectures on Literature by happy accident, whilst reading Amazon reviews on Dickens, and I am sold. I am only part-way through the book, but I recommend it very highly. I will be buying my own copy, and if you can find a copy at your local library, I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do. It’s very accessible, and not at all intimidating – just an exhilarating read recounting and unfolding literature masterpieces with great love and passion.

 
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Nabokov then discusses Fanny’s tendency to quote poetry, or at least allude to it during her conversations, often with Edmund. He says, that, “we must bear in mind that in Fanny’s time the reading and knowledge of poetry was much more natural … and widespread than today. Our cultural, or so-called cultural, outlets are perhaps more various and numerous than in the first decades of the last century, but when I think of the vulgarities of the radio, video, or of the incredible, trite woman’s magazines of today, I wonder if there is not a lot to be said for Fanny’s immersion in poetry.”

I have to add – the “trite woman’s magazines of today” – this was written in the 50s, or thereabouts. How Nabokov would shudder (and much worse) at today’s magazine culture!

He quotes William Cowper’s poem “The Sofa” at length, as Fanny quoted it to Edmund – Ye fallen avenues! – and then moves on to Fanny’s poetic allusions, this time in the chapel at Rushmore’s Sotherton. Nabokov informs that Fanny is quoting loosely from Sir Walter Scott’s The Lay of the Last Minstrel. I had no idea!
 
I will continue reading the lecture, and if anything extremely interesting grabs me, I will post it. I'm currently reading Nobokov structural analysis; Mansfield Park's breakdown into themes and motifs. Very interesting. Lectures on Literature is worth reading for this reason alone.
 
 

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