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Re: Brian Boyd rates VN's Greatest...
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I too would like to add Bend Sinister to the list, not only for Piers Smith’s cogent reason, but also because it has the best father-son love theme I have ever read—a very rare theme in literature generally—and also for the Hamlet parody. So what would I replace? Not Invitation to a Beheading, which points to Nabokov’s interest in a Gnostic Otherworld. Surprisingly I would drop Ada, which does not stand up to subsequent rereadings (mine anyway). And I would put the short fiction higher on the list.
Eric Hyman
Professor of English
Department of English
Butler 133
Fayetteville State University
1200 Murchison Road
Fayetteville, NC 28301-4252
(910) 672-1901
ehyman@uncfsu.edu
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of piers smith
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2015 1:26 AM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Brian Boyd rates VN's Greatest...
Indeed. I'd just replace Invitation to a Beheading with Bend Sinister, to my mind a much richer and more serious assault on tyranny.
On Sunday, 8 November 2015, 6:22, Jansy Mello <jansy.mello@OUTLOOK.COM<mailto:jansy.mello@OUTLOOK.COM>> wrote:
The 10 Best Vladimir Nabokov Books
By Brian Boyd | Nov 06, 2015
Award-winning Nabokov biographer Brian Boyd wrote an MA thesis that Vladimir Nabokov called “brilliant” and a PhD thesis that Véra Nabokov thought the best thing written about her husband to date. Boyd, editor of Letters to Véra<http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0307593368>, chronicling the decades-long love story between Vladimir and Véra, picks the 10 best Nabokov books.
Vladimir Nabokov’s Letters to Véra, edited and translated by Olga Voronina and myself, publishes on November 4 (Knopf). The letters cover a span from 1923, the year the couple met, to 1976, the year before Nabokov died. Véra famously helped Vladimir as first reader, editor, typist, secretary and agent, although not, despite the rumors, as co-author. But Nabokov did once write to her: “I read parts of your little card (about the move—terrible! I can imagine . . . ) out loud to Ilyusha and Zinzin and they said they understood now who writes my books for me.” We can see glints and shadows or more of Véra in four of the books on this top ten list, in Pale Fire’s Sybil Shade, The Gift’s Zina Mertz, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight’s Claire Bishop, and Speak, Memory’s “you.”
Martin Amis is not alone in rating Nabokov the greatest writer of the twentieth century while ranking Ulysses as the century’s greatest single novel. The top two novels below, though, have both rated higher than even Ulysses in some published lists. Don’t take such orderings too seriously, but do take the books into your life.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/68589-the-10-best-vladimir-nabokov-books.html
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L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L>
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All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
Search archive with Google:
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Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
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Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
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The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
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Eric Hyman
Professor of English
Department of English
Butler 133
Fayetteville State University
1200 Murchison Road
Fayetteville, NC 28301-4252
(910) 672-1901
ehyman@uncfsu.edu
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU] On Behalf Of piers smith
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2015 1:26 AM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] Brian Boyd rates VN's Greatest...
Indeed. I'd just replace Invitation to a Beheading with Bend Sinister, to my mind a much richer and more serious assault on tyranny.
On Sunday, 8 November 2015, 6:22, Jansy Mello <jansy.mello@OUTLOOK.COM<mailto:jansy.mello@OUTLOOK.COM>> wrote:
The 10 Best Vladimir Nabokov Books
By Brian Boyd | Nov 06, 2015
Award-winning Nabokov biographer Brian Boyd wrote an MA thesis that Vladimir Nabokov called “brilliant” and a PhD thesis that Véra Nabokov thought the best thing written about her husband to date. Boyd, editor of Letters to Véra<http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0307593368>, chronicling the decades-long love story between Vladimir and Véra, picks the 10 best Nabokov books.
Vladimir Nabokov’s Letters to Véra, edited and translated by Olga Voronina and myself, publishes on November 4 (Knopf). The letters cover a span from 1923, the year the couple met, to 1976, the year before Nabokov died. Véra famously helped Vladimir as first reader, editor, typist, secretary and agent, although not, despite the rumors, as co-author. But Nabokov did once write to her: “I read parts of your little card (about the move—terrible! I can imagine . . . ) out loud to Ilyusha and Zinzin and they said they understood now who writes my books for me.” We can see glints and shadows or more of Véra in four of the books on this top ten list, in Pale Fire’s Sybil Shade, The Gift’s Zina Mertz, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight’s Claire Bishop, and Speak, Memory’s “you.”
Martin Amis is not alone in rating Nabokov the greatest writer of the twentieth century while ranking Ulysses as the century’s greatest single novel. The top two novels below, though, have both rated higher than even Ulysses in some published lists. Don’t take such orderings too seriously, but do take the books into your life.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/tip-sheet/article/68589-the-10-best-vladimir-nabokov-books.html
Google Search <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
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NOJ<http://www.nabokovonline.com/>
Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm>
Nabokv-L <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
Policies<http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
Subscription options<http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L>
AdaOnline<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/>
NSJ Ada Annotations<http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html>
L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L>
VN Bibliography Blog<http://vnbiblio.com/>
All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
Google Search <http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&hl=en%0A>
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Contact<mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
the Editors<mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>
NOJ<http://www.nabokovonline.com>
Zembla<http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm>
Nabokv-L <http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
Policies<http://web.utk.edu/%7Esblackwe/EDNote.htm>
Subscription options<http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L>
AdaOnline<http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/>
NSJ Ada Annotations<http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html>
L-Soft Search the archive<https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L>
VN Bibliography Blog<http://vnbiblio.com/>
All private editorial communications are read by both co-editors.
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
Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
AdaOnline: "http://www.ada.auckland.ac.nz/
The Nabokov Society of Japan's Annotations to Ada: http://vnjapan.org/main/ada/index.html
The VN Bibliography Blog: http://vnbiblio.com/
Search the archive with L-Soft: https://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?A0=NABOKV-L
Manage subscription options :http://listserv.ucsb.edu/lsv-cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=NABOKV-L