Subject
Pushkin's Button: Review in 'Spectator' (fwd)
Date
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EDITOR's Note. NABOKV-L thanks George Shimanovich
<gshiman@worldnet.att.net> for the following.
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'Spectator' (13 March) published the review by Philip Hensher ("Biting the
button") of the book by Serena Vitale "Pushkin's button".
Mr. Hensher does not make a secret of his apparent dislike of Nabokov's
commentary on Eugene Onegin:
"Nabokov's eye-boggling insane four-volume assault on Eugene Onegin".
The reviewer cannot forgive the author the use of Nabokov's monumental
commentary:
"Throughout, she makes a point of requiring her translators to quote from
Nabokov's notoriously hideous translation of Eugene Onegin rather than from
Charles Johnstone's brilliant version; it is a striking warning that this is
author has no sensitivity to finer nuisances, a prerequisite for any reader of
Pushkin."
So much for unobjectionable 'brilliance' of Johnstone's
"Left-handed from the habitation
where dwelt this child of inspiration".
>From what remains of the book in the review I perceive the "Pushkin's button"
to be thought provoking and probably worth reading ... with Nabokov's
commentary at hand.
Sincerely,
George Shimanovich
<gshiman@worldnet.att.net> for the following.
--------------------------------------------------
'Spectator' (13 March) published the review by Philip Hensher ("Biting the
button") of the book by Serena Vitale "Pushkin's button".
Mr. Hensher does not make a secret of his apparent dislike of Nabokov's
commentary on Eugene Onegin:
"Nabokov's eye-boggling insane four-volume assault on Eugene Onegin".
The reviewer cannot forgive the author the use of Nabokov's monumental
commentary:
"Throughout, she makes a point of requiring her translators to quote from
Nabokov's notoriously hideous translation of Eugene Onegin rather than from
Charles Johnstone's brilliant version; it is a striking warning that this is
author has no sensitivity to finer nuisances, a prerequisite for any reader of
Pushkin."
So much for unobjectionable 'brilliance' of Johnstone's
"Left-handed from the habitation
where dwelt this child of inspiration".
>From what remains of the book in the review I perceive the "Pushkin's button"
to be thought provoking and probably worth reading ... with Nabokov's
commentary at hand.
Sincerely,
George Shimanovich