"Why didn't they ask Evans?" (that's for Agatha Christie lovers) or.... Why didn't I search directly in the Wikipedia?
The answer and bibliographical
and historical data are there...
Jansy Mello
Carrousel is a booklet
published in 1987 containing three short texts written by Vladimir Nabokov in
1923 for "Karussel", a Russian cabaret...The three texts are:
"Laughter and
Dreams" (by Vladimir V. Nabokoff), a short and impressionistic essay on the
arts, toys, and the cabaret.;"Painted Wood" (by V. Cantaboff), an essay in the
same vein on wooden toys and the cabaret; "The Russian Song" (by Vladimir
Sirine), a short and nostalgic poem.
"Cantaboff" of course refers to
"Cantab." and the author's recent graduation from Trinity College, Cambridge;
"Sirine" was Nabokov's occasional French spelling for "Sirin", his early Russian
pseudonym.Brian Boyd regards the poem as "banal", the prose as
"masterly".[1]
The only known previous appearance of these three texts
had been within the second issue of a trilingual (German, French, English)
brochure, Karussel — Carousal — Carrousel, published in Berlin in 1923 as the
prospectus for "Karussel", a Russian theatre travelling to Berlin.
Stella de
Does-Kohnhorst discovered a copy of this rare prospectus, gave it to the Nabokov
family, and asked for and obtained their permission to publish the contributions
by Nabokov.
There have been two editions, both designed by Bram de Does and
published in 1987 by Spectatorpers in Aartswoud (the
[1] Boyd, p. 218.
[2] Juliar, pp.
43–4.
.............................
Boyd, Brian. Vladimir Nabokov: The
Russian Years. Princeton:
Juliar,
Michael. "Updates to Vladimir Nabokov: A Descriptive Bibliography."
Typescript, 1 April 1991.
Nabokov, Vladimir.
Carrousel. Aartswoud: Spectatorpers, 1987.