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Nabokov's Dozen Revisited
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Charles,
Thanks. I think it was the first Nabokov story collection I read (or was
that Nabokov's Dozen?). Nowadays pf course, I have the collected stories.
My favourite of his short stories are Signs and Symbols and The Vane
Sisters.
Kiran Krisha <kiran@physics.usyd.edu.au>
On Wed, 10 Oct 2001, Charles Cave wrote:
> The following article appeared in the weekend magazine
> of "The Australian" newspaper on September 22-23 2001
> (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au)
>
>
> Charles Cave
> Sydney, NSW, Australia
> charles.cave@bullant.com
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> CULTURE VULTURE LOOKS BACK
> Nabokov's Dozen (1958)
>
> Vladimir Nabokov will forever be linked in the public mind
> with Lolita. Published in 1958, it brought him success
> as well as infamy - and then the same all over again,
> four years later, when he turned it into a screenplay
> for Stanley Kubrick. Yet for 35 years before that watershed,
> Nabokov had been producing ingenious, artistically daring
> fiction.
>
> Born in Russia, he migrated to Boston, via Europe, and
> reinvented himself as an anglophone writer. The 13 stories
> of this collection, written from 1930 to 1950, justify his
> reputation as one of the architects of postmodernism and
> showcase his versatility. From the dreamlike menace
> of Kafka ("Cloud, Castle, Lake") to the playful word-conjuring
> of Borges ("Conversation Piece, 1945") and an eccentric brand
> of sci-fi ("Lance"), these stories consistently astound.
>
> Through them all runs Nabokov's trademark style, supple yet
> precise, able to transform an everyday observation into
> a poetic tour-de-force.
>
> ---------------
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kiran Krishna
3rd yr physics
(Falkiner High Energy Physics)
University of Sydney
NSW 2006
--------------------------------------------
Home is so sad. It stays as it was left,
Shaped to the comfort of the last to go
As if to win them back. Instead, bereft
Of anyone to please, it withers so,
Having no heart to put aside the theft
And turn again to what it started as,
A joyous shot at how things ought to be,
Long fallen wide. You can see how it was:
Look at the pictures and the cutlery.
The music in the piano stool. That vase.
- Home is so sad, Philip Larkin
http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/hienergy
http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~kiran
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks. I think it was the first Nabokov story collection I read (or was
that Nabokov's Dozen?). Nowadays pf course, I have the collected stories.
My favourite of his short stories are Signs and Symbols and The Vane
Sisters.
Kiran Krisha <kiran@physics.usyd.edu.au>
On Wed, 10 Oct 2001, Charles Cave wrote:
> The following article appeared in the weekend magazine
> of "The Australian" newspaper on September 22-23 2001
> (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au)
>
>
> Charles Cave
> Sydney, NSW, Australia
> charles.cave@bullant.com
> ------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> CULTURE VULTURE LOOKS BACK
> Nabokov's Dozen (1958)
>
> Vladimir Nabokov will forever be linked in the public mind
> with Lolita. Published in 1958, it brought him success
> as well as infamy - and then the same all over again,
> four years later, when he turned it into a screenplay
> for Stanley Kubrick. Yet for 35 years before that watershed,
> Nabokov had been producing ingenious, artistically daring
> fiction.
>
> Born in Russia, he migrated to Boston, via Europe, and
> reinvented himself as an anglophone writer. The 13 stories
> of this collection, written from 1930 to 1950, justify his
> reputation as one of the architects of postmodernism and
> showcase his versatility. From the dreamlike menace
> of Kafka ("Cloud, Castle, Lake") to the playful word-conjuring
> of Borges ("Conversation Piece, 1945") and an eccentric brand
> of sci-fi ("Lance"), these stories consistently astound.
>
> Through them all runs Nabokov's trademark style, supple yet
> precise, able to transform an everyday observation into
> a poetic tour-de-force.
>
> ---------------
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kiran Krishna
3rd yr physics
(Falkiner High Energy Physics)
University of Sydney
NSW 2006
--------------------------------------------
Home is so sad. It stays as it was left,
Shaped to the comfort of the last to go
As if to win them back. Instead, bereft
Of anyone to please, it withers so,
Having no heart to put aside the theft
And turn again to what it started as,
A joyous shot at how things ought to be,
Long fallen wide. You can see how it was:
Look at the pictures and the cutlery.
The music in the piano stool. That vase.
- Home is so sad, Philip Larkin
http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/hienergy
http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~kiran
--------------------------------------------------------------------------