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[NABOKOV-L] Stryiing geography, Dickens and Lincoln's Inn Fields
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Efficient and coherent ED Steve Blackwell wrote: "Jansy, I'm not inclined to post Vidal's quotation of VN, since it's just rhetorical; or--do you have a larger point on the Lincoln topic you're after?" *
JM: There's no "larger point" to add but, in this reformulated posting, he may let it pass. The smaller point at issue is that I still have another (irrelevant!) reference to Lincoln, one that is even more distanced, than Gore Vidal's risposte, related to the living Abraham and his biographical work of fiction.
In a very curious book titled "A Reader's Guide to Writers's London" (Ian Cunningham, Prion Books, 2001), there was an entry related to Holborn (p.79) the area that "dominates Dickens' greatest novel, Bleak House, starting from its arresting opening, with London in 'implacable November weather"...In the novel, the sinister lawyer Mr Tulkinghorn has chambers at Lincoln's Inn Fields... Dickens is actually describing the home of his closest friend, 'the Lincolnian mammoth' John Forster, at 58 Lincoln's Inn Fields...It was also at Forster's home that Dickens read his Christmas story 'The Chimes'... Lincoln's Inn itself was one of the four Inns of Court (see Temple), built piecemeal between the late fifteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Among the workers was a young bricklayer, later a playwright, Ben Jonson...The foundation stone of the chapel was laid by Donne" aso.
In Nabokov's "Lectures on Literature" (F.Bowers,1980,p.63-124) we find his study of "Bleak House," when he feels "at table with our tawny port...Modern authors still get drunk on his vintage." In it there is a typical comment (similar to his observations about Shakespearean plays and Gogol's work):
"In discussing Bleak House we shall soon notice that the romantic plot of the novel is an illusion and is not of much artistic importance. There are better things in the book than the sad case of Lady Dedlock...it is going to be all play [...] The study of the sociological or political impact of literature has to be devised mainly for those who are by temperament or education immune to the aesthetic vibrancy of authentic literature, for those who do not experience the telltale tingle between the shoulder blades. As is quite clear, the enchanter interests me more than the yarn spinner or the teacher."(64-65)..."His people are alive, not merely clothed ideas or symbols"(69)... and there's an Ada "on the good side" (68). How VN deals with Skimpole, Jo and with Dickens' definition of "a child," is worth remembering. "The Precision of Poetry and the Excitement of Science. And this is the impact of Bleak House at its best.."(123)
Inspite of the inadequate connecting threads bt. Lincoln's Inn Fields, Dickens and Abraham Lincoln, this verbal voyage might be of interest to the Listers. I'm sure that it will send me back to Nabokov's lectures and to Dickens' "Bleak House," Mnemosyne at her best!
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* - Vidal, defending his novel "Lincoln" quoted Nabokov: "The late Vladimir Nabokov said that when anyone criticized his art, he was indifferent. That was their problem. But if anyone attacked his scholarship, he reached for his dictionary." www.nybooks.com/.../gore-vidals-lincoln-an-exchange/ -
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JM: There's no "larger point" to add but, in this reformulated posting, he may let it pass. The smaller point at issue is that I still have another (irrelevant!) reference to Lincoln, one that is even more distanced, than Gore Vidal's risposte, related to the living Abraham and his biographical work of fiction.
In a very curious book titled "A Reader's Guide to Writers's London" (Ian Cunningham, Prion Books, 2001), there was an entry related to Holborn (p.79) the area that "dominates Dickens' greatest novel, Bleak House, starting from its arresting opening, with London in 'implacable November weather"...In the novel, the sinister lawyer Mr Tulkinghorn has chambers at Lincoln's Inn Fields... Dickens is actually describing the home of his closest friend, 'the Lincolnian mammoth' John Forster, at 58 Lincoln's Inn Fields...It was also at Forster's home that Dickens read his Christmas story 'The Chimes'... Lincoln's Inn itself was one of the four Inns of Court (see Temple), built piecemeal between the late fifteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Among the workers was a young bricklayer, later a playwright, Ben Jonson...The foundation stone of the chapel was laid by Donne" aso.
In Nabokov's "Lectures on Literature" (F.Bowers,1980,p.63-124) we find his study of "Bleak House," when he feels "at table with our tawny port...Modern authors still get drunk on his vintage." In it there is a typical comment (similar to his observations about Shakespearean plays and Gogol's work):
"In discussing Bleak House we shall soon notice that the romantic plot of the novel is an illusion and is not of much artistic importance. There are better things in the book than the sad case of Lady Dedlock...it is going to be all play [...] The study of the sociological or political impact of literature has to be devised mainly for those who are by temperament or education immune to the aesthetic vibrancy of authentic literature, for those who do not experience the telltale tingle between the shoulder blades. As is quite clear, the enchanter interests me more than the yarn spinner or the teacher."(64-65)..."His people are alive, not merely clothed ideas or symbols"(69)... and there's an Ada "on the good side" (68). How VN deals with Skimpole, Jo and with Dickens' definition of "a child," is worth remembering. "The Precision of Poetry and the Excitement of Science. And this is the impact of Bleak House at its best.."(123)
Inspite of the inadequate connecting threads bt. Lincoln's Inn Fields, Dickens and Abraham Lincoln, this verbal voyage might be of interest to the Listers. I'm sure that it will send me back to Nabokov's lectures and to Dickens' "Bleak House," Mnemosyne at her best!
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
* - Vidal, defending his novel "Lincoln" quoted Nabokov: "The late Vladimir Nabokov said that when anyone criticized his art, he was indifferent. That was their problem. But if anyone attacked his scholarship, he reached for his dictionary." www.nybooks.com/.../gore-vidals-lincoln-an-exchange/ -
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/