Subject
VN issue of Swiss journal DU (Jun. '96) (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR'S NOTE. Nassim Berdjis, author of the 1995 volume _Imagery in
Vladimir Nabokov's Last Russian Novel (Dar), its English Translation (The
Gift), and Other Prose Works of the 1930s_ (Peter Lang: Frankfurt am Main,
1995) sends the following account of the recent "Nabokov issue" (June
1996) of the Zurich German-language journal "du."
NABOKV-L thanks Dr. Berdjis for her synopsis.
-----------------------------------------------
The 108-page magazine contains various essays on Nabokov's life and
work arranged in chronological order and subdivided into introductory
musings, "Russia 1899-1919," "Berlin 1922-1937," "America 1940-1961,"
"Montreux 1961-1977," and "Epilogue." The reproductions of
photographs from "Speak, Memory" and other sources as well as of more
recent photographs from the St. Petersburg contribute greatly to the
attractiveness of the magazine as an introduction to Nabokov as a
person and a writer. The magazine also includes an extensive ad for
the German edition of Nabokov's works by Rowohlt, edited by Dieter
E. Zimmer.
0. GASS WILLIAM.
[THE RED ARROW]. p. 12
Gass, who teaches philosophy at Washington University in St.
Louis, describes impressions of train rides full of literary
reminiscences.
1. BACHMANN D.
[THE WORLD OF NABOKOV,VLADIMIR - INTRODUCTION]. p. 21
In her editorial, Bachmann describes Nabokov as an unrecognized,
misunderstood genius and his fans as people who do not proselytize.
2. SEBALD WG.
[NABOKOV DREAMS AND THE REALITY OF FICTION]. p. 22-25.
Sebald discusses ghosts in Nabokov's works and describes the
narrative "trick" of shifting the perspective within a narrative by
introducing an invisible observer that sees more than the characters, the
narrator, and the author. As an example, Sebald refers to the bird's
eye view in "Laughter in the Dark."
3. MESSMER A.
[STATIONS OF NABOKOV,V. LIFE - A PHOTO ESSAY]. 26+.
4. NARBIKOVA V.
[NABOKOV,VLADIMIR - THE LAST GREAT RUSSIAN WRITER]. 28-29.
Narbikova discusses Nabokov and his relationship to works of
Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Karamzin, and Tolstoj. The reader may be
confused by her calling "Drugie berega" a novel.
5. VELIKIC D.
[ARCADIA IS IN RUSSIA - RUSSIAN FOUNDATIONS OF NABOKOV,VLADIMIR WORKS].
30+.
Velikic shows that the "I" in fiction can create unrealized places
and possibilities, and then discusses the role of games in Nabokov's
works. Nabokov's reinvention of the world used the Russia of his
childhood as a source and depicted human suffering. Velikic refers to
Danilo Kis's essay on Nabokov and nostalgia. He then states that both
Kis and Nabokov did not allow themselves to become "commercialized"
as witnesses of major historical events.
6. BITOV A.
[IMMORTALITY OF A MOSQUITO BITE - READING NABOKOV FROM A RUSSIAN
PERSPECTIVE].44+.
Bitov discusses immortality as Nabokov's central theme and describes
it as a condition of life. In other words, unforgettable details from
Nabokov's novels closely connect the two elements, and the act of
reading resurrects dead literary heroes. Bitow describes
his visit to the site of Rozhdestvenno after it had burnt down. He also
categorizes Nabokov as the author with whom the Silver Age of Russian
literature closed.
7. HILDEBRANDT D.
[BERLIN, AN UNREAL METROPOLIS - THE BERLIN YEARS OF NABOKOV,VLADIMIR,
1922-1937]. 48+.
Hildebrandt regards "A Guide to Berlin" as a good example of
Nabokov's techniques. He then states that Russian writers didn't love
Berlin and goes on to describe the image of Berlin in Nabokov's works.
8. NABOKOV V.
[CAMBRIDGE] (NABOKOV,V. STUDIES IN RUSSIAN AND FRENCH PHILOLOGY AT
CAMBRIDGE-UNIVERSITY IN 1919-1922). 52-53.
excerpt from "Drugie berega"?
9. FLAMM S.
[An Atmosphere of Change]
[BERLIN IN THE 1920S, A CENTER OF RUSSIAN EMIGRANTS, A VERITABLE
CHARLOTTENGRAD]. 55-55.
Flamm mentions numerous Russian emigres who lived in Berlin when
Nabokov was there. Times have changed since then, and today there is
a barrier between the Russian who have recently emigrated to Germany
and others who have been there for a long time. At the end, she
expresses the hope that new Russian publications in Berlin will
lead to dialogue between Russian and German culture and to mutual
understanding.
10. MAAR M.
[Dying into Life]
[THE 1ST ENGLISH-LANGUAGE NOVEL BY NABOKOV WRITTEN IN AMERICA - A
FAREWELL TO EUROPE]. 58+.
Maar thinks that Keats's poem "La Bell Dame sans Merci" inspired
Nabokov to give Sebastian the last name "Knight" so that Nina Lecerf
becomes the merciless lady who ruins him. The confusion about Knight's
identity at the end of the novel confirms Keats's paradox in "Hyperion":
"to die into life." Knight's death leads to the birth of art.
11. BURKHARDT B.
[A PROFLIGATE NYMPH AND A LUDICROUS KNIGHT - NABOKOV 'LOLITA' AND
'PNIN']. 62-63.
Burkhardt traces the publication history of "Lolita" and praises
the Rowohlt edition of "Lolita" for making it clear to the reader that
"Lolita" is not a coincidental masterpiece, but that it rather basks
on the pillar of earlier works. He then contrasts "Lolita" and "Pnin,"
describing how both novels reflect the campus milieu while Nabokov
shows a kind of ironic sympathy only for Pnin.
12. [THE 1ST EDITION OF NABOKOV 'LOLITA' AND THE REACTION OF LITERARY
CRITICS]. 64-66.
Beautiful reproduction of the Lolita covers (both volumes), of
the opening lines of the novel (enlarged), complemented by reviews from
1956 and 1958.
13. ZIMMER DE.
[NABOKOV LIFE-LONG PASSION FOR BUTTERFLIES - LITERATURE AND ENTOMOLOGY].
67+.
Zimmer discusses the serious role which lepidoptery played in
Nabokov's life, and photographs show Nabokov at the MCZ as well as
his scientific drawings of wing details as well as one of his butterfly
glass cases from the zoological museum in Lausanne. Zimmer makes clear
that Nabokov didn't use butterflies as symbols or allegories, but that
he insisted on the symbiotic relationship between science and art,
intuition and precision.
p. 72-73: reproduction of Hieronymus Bosch's "Garden of Delights" with
excerpts from a 1970 interview with VN and from "Ada."
14. BACHMANN D; LEIPRECHT H; USTINOV P.
[The bad character of butterflies]
[AN INTERVIEW WITH USTINOV,PETER, A FRIEND OF THE NABOKOVS IN MONTREUX,
SWITZERLAND]. 76-77.
Ustinov paints a rather distanced picture of Nabokov and stresses
the writer's desire for privacy. Strangely enough, he describes him as
someone who never read newspapers and (thus) refused to discuss the state
of the world. Nonetheless, he sees Nabokov not as an eccentric poseur,
but as someone who behaved in a natural way and who merely insisted
on belonging to a cultural elite.
15. BUTTNER JM.
[LAKE-LEMAN AND ITS OBSERVERS - MONTREUX, SWITZERLAND, THE LAST STATION
ON NABOKOV,V. ITINERARY (1961-1977)]. 78-81.
The rude quote from a rapper wtih which this article opens remains
unconnected to the article and even more unrelated to Nabokov. Buttner
provides his perspective on Lake Geneva, describes Nabokov's and
other artists' lives on its shores.
p. 79: reprint of a letter that VN sent to his sister Elena. The
letter includes a "program" for the day's activities as well as a
sketch of the Nabokovs' rooms at the Palace Hotel in Montreux.
p. 82-83: Photo of VN and his sister Elena.
16. RUMYANTSEVA M.
[CHRONOLOGY OF VLADIMIR NABOKOV (1899-1977) LIFE AND WORK]. 84+
Rumyantseva provides a beautiful rendering of Nabokov's life
and work. The chronological structure of the text and the interspersed
pictures and butterfly drawings make the reading experience even more
pleasurable.
17. SCHAHADAT S.
NABOKOV, VERA -- NABOKOV VLADIMIR: WIFE AND MUSE. 87
Schahadat describes Vera's personality and her role in
Nabokov's life. She also refers to echoes of Vera in Zina ("Dar") and in
Clare Bishop ("The Real Life of Sebastian Knight").
p. 91: Picture of Nabokov hunting butterflies in the Swiss Alps in
the early 1970s, complemented by a quote about the timelessness
he experienced in the presence of rare butterflies in their habitat.
18. INGOLD F. PH.
EPILOGUE: IN MEMORIAM JOSEPH BRODSKY. 92-93.
Although the epilogue focuses on Brodsky, Ingold also
compares the two writers, saying that they agreed on that status of
art as a higher form of "reality." Furthermore, both writers focused
on the individual reader in the sense that they wanted to achieve
a fusion betwen the writer's and the reader's mind.
Overall, this edition of "DU" provides an overview of
Nabokov's life and work that should inspire reader acquire his
novels, etc. Although the individual essays may not cater to
everyone's taste, they do not distract from the appreciation of
a great writer's achievements; on the contrary, they may arouse
more interest by their variety.
Nassim W. Berdjis
University of California at Davis
nwberdjis@ucdavis.edu
Vladimir Nabokov's Last Russian Novel (Dar), its English Translation (The
Gift), and Other Prose Works of the 1930s_ (Peter Lang: Frankfurt am Main,
1995) sends the following account of the recent "Nabokov issue" (June
1996) of the Zurich German-language journal "du."
NABOKV-L thanks Dr. Berdjis for her synopsis.
-----------------------------------------------
The 108-page magazine contains various essays on Nabokov's life and
work arranged in chronological order and subdivided into introductory
musings, "Russia 1899-1919," "Berlin 1922-1937," "America 1940-1961,"
"Montreux 1961-1977," and "Epilogue." The reproductions of
photographs from "Speak, Memory" and other sources as well as of more
recent photographs from the St. Petersburg contribute greatly to the
attractiveness of the magazine as an introduction to Nabokov as a
person and a writer. The magazine also includes an extensive ad for
the German edition of Nabokov's works by Rowohlt, edited by Dieter
E. Zimmer.
0. GASS WILLIAM.
[THE RED ARROW]. p. 12
Gass, who teaches philosophy at Washington University in St.
Louis, describes impressions of train rides full of literary
reminiscences.
1. BACHMANN D.
[THE WORLD OF NABOKOV,VLADIMIR - INTRODUCTION]. p. 21
In her editorial, Bachmann describes Nabokov as an unrecognized,
misunderstood genius and his fans as people who do not proselytize.
2. SEBALD WG.
[NABOKOV DREAMS AND THE REALITY OF FICTION]. p. 22-25.
Sebald discusses ghosts in Nabokov's works and describes the
narrative "trick" of shifting the perspective within a narrative by
introducing an invisible observer that sees more than the characters, the
narrator, and the author. As an example, Sebald refers to the bird's
eye view in "Laughter in the Dark."
3. MESSMER A.
[STATIONS OF NABOKOV,V. LIFE - A PHOTO ESSAY]. 26+.
4. NARBIKOVA V.
[NABOKOV,VLADIMIR - THE LAST GREAT RUSSIAN WRITER]. 28-29.
Narbikova discusses Nabokov and his relationship to works of
Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Karamzin, and Tolstoj. The reader may be
confused by her calling "Drugie berega" a novel.
5. VELIKIC D.
[ARCADIA IS IN RUSSIA - RUSSIAN FOUNDATIONS OF NABOKOV,VLADIMIR WORKS].
30+.
Velikic shows that the "I" in fiction can create unrealized places
and possibilities, and then discusses the role of games in Nabokov's
works. Nabokov's reinvention of the world used the Russia of his
childhood as a source and depicted human suffering. Velikic refers to
Danilo Kis's essay on Nabokov and nostalgia. He then states that both
Kis and Nabokov did not allow themselves to become "commercialized"
as witnesses of major historical events.
6. BITOV A.
[IMMORTALITY OF A MOSQUITO BITE - READING NABOKOV FROM A RUSSIAN
PERSPECTIVE].44+.
Bitov discusses immortality as Nabokov's central theme and describes
it as a condition of life. In other words, unforgettable details from
Nabokov's novels closely connect the two elements, and the act of
reading resurrects dead literary heroes. Bitow describes
his visit to the site of Rozhdestvenno after it had burnt down. He also
categorizes Nabokov as the author with whom the Silver Age of Russian
literature closed.
7. HILDEBRANDT D.
[BERLIN, AN UNREAL METROPOLIS - THE BERLIN YEARS OF NABOKOV,VLADIMIR,
1922-1937]. 48+.
Hildebrandt regards "A Guide to Berlin" as a good example of
Nabokov's techniques. He then states that Russian writers didn't love
Berlin and goes on to describe the image of Berlin in Nabokov's works.
8. NABOKOV V.
[CAMBRIDGE] (NABOKOV,V. STUDIES IN RUSSIAN AND FRENCH PHILOLOGY AT
CAMBRIDGE-UNIVERSITY IN 1919-1922). 52-53.
excerpt from "Drugie berega"?
9. FLAMM S.
[An Atmosphere of Change]
[BERLIN IN THE 1920S, A CENTER OF RUSSIAN EMIGRANTS, A VERITABLE
CHARLOTTENGRAD]. 55-55.
Flamm mentions numerous Russian emigres who lived in Berlin when
Nabokov was there. Times have changed since then, and today there is
a barrier between the Russian who have recently emigrated to Germany
and others who have been there for a long time. At the end, she
expresses the hope that new Russian publications in Berlin will
lead to dialogue between Russian and German culture and to mutual
understanding.
10. MAAR M.
[Dying into Life]
[THE 1ST ENGLISH-LANGUAGE NOVEL BY NABOKOV WRITTEN IN AMERICA - A
FAREWELL TO EUROPE]. 58+.
Maar thinks that Keats's poem "La Bell Dame sans Merci" inspired
Nabokov to give Sebastian the last name "Knight" so that Nina Lecerf
becomes the merciless lady who ruins him. The confusion about Knight's
identity at the end of the novel confirms Keats's paradox in "Hyperion":
"to die into life." Knight's death leads to the birth of art.
11. BURKHARDT B.
[A PROFLIGATE NYMPH AND A LUDICROUS KNIGHT - NABOKOV 'LOLITA' AND
'PNIN']. 62-63.
Burkhardt traces the publication history of "Lolita" and praises
the Rowohlt edition of "Lolita" for making it clear to the reader that
"Lolita" is not a coincidental masterpiece, but that it rather basks
on the pillar of earlier works. He then contrasts "Lolita" and "Pnin,"
describing how both novels reflect the campus milieu while Nabokov
shows a kind of ironic sympathy only for Pnin.
12. [THE 1ST EDITION OF NABOKOV 'LOLITA' AND THE REACTION OF LITERARY
CRITICS]. 64-66.
Beautiful reproduction of the Lolita covers (both volumes), of
the opening lines of the novel (enlarged), complemented by reviews from
1956 and 1958.
13. ZIMMER DE.
[NABOKOV LIFE-LONG PASSION FOR BUTTERFLIES - LITERATURE AND ENTOMOLOGY].
67+.
Zimmer discusses the serious role which lepidoptery played in
Nabokov's life, and photographs show Nabokov at the MCZ as well as
his scientific drawings of wing details as well as one of his butterfly
glass cases from the zoological museum in Lausanne. Zimmer makes clear
that Nabokov didn't use butterflies as symbols or allegories, but that
he insisted on the symbiotic relationship between science and art,
intuition and precision.
p. 72-73: reproduction of Hieronymus Bosch's "Garden of Delights" with
excerpts from a 1970 interview with VN and from "Ada."
14. BACHMANN D; LEIPRECHT H; USTINOV P.
[The bad character of butterflies]
[AN INTERVIEW WITH USTINOV,PETER, A FRIEND OF THE NABOKOVS IN MONTREUX,
SWITZERLAND]. 76-77.
Ustinov paints a rather distanced picture of Nabokov and stresses
the writer's desire for privacy. Strangely enough, he describes him as
someone who never read newspapers and (thus) refused to discuss the state
of the world. Nonetheless, he sees Nabokov not as an eccentric poseur,
but as someone who behaved in a natural way and who merely insisted
on belonging to a cultural elite.
15. BUTTNER JM.
[LAKE-LEMAN AND ITS OBSERVERS - MONTREUX, SWITZERLAND, THE LAST STATION
ON NABOKOV,V. ITINERARY (1961-1977)]. 78-81.
The rude quote from a rapper wtih which this article opens remains
unconnected to the article and even more unrelated to Nabokov. Buttner
provides his perspective on Lake Geneva, describes Nabokov's and
other artists' lives on its shores.
p. 79: reprint of a letter that VN sent to his sister Elena. The
letter includes a "program" for the day's activities as well as a
sketch of the Nabokovs' rooms at the Palace Hotel in Montreux.
p. 82-83: Photo of VN and his sister Elena.
16. RUMYANTSEVA M.
[CHRONOLOGY OF VLADIMIR NABOKOV (1899-1977) LIFE AND WORK]. 84+
Rumyantseva provides a beautiful rendering of Nabokov's life
and work. The chronological structure of the text and the interspersed
pictures and butterfly drawings make the reading experience even more
pleasurable.
17. SCHAHADAT S.
NABOKOV, VERA -- NABOKOV VLADIMIR: WIFE AND MUSE. 87
Schahadat describes Vera's personality and her role in
Nabokov's life. She also refers to echoes of Vera in Zina ("Dar") and in
Clare Bishop ("The Real Life of Sebastian Knight").
p. 91: Picture of Nabokov hunting butterflies in the Swiss Alps in
the early 1970s, complemented by a quote about the timelessness
he experienced in the presence of rare butterflies in their habitat.
18. INGOLD F. PH.
EPILOGUE: IN MEMORIAM JOSEPH BRODSKY. 92-93.
Although the epilogue focuses on Brodsky, Ingold also
compares the two writers, saying that they agreed on that status of
art as a higher form of "reality." Furthermore, both writers focused
on the individual reader in the sense that they wanted to achieve
a fusion betwen the writer's and the reader's mind.
Overall, this edition of "DU" provides an overview of
Nabokov's life and work that should inspire reader acquire his
novels, etc. Although the individual essays may not cater to
everyone's taste, they do not distract from the appreciation of
a great writer's achievements; on the contrary, they may arouse
more interest by their variety.
Nassim W. Berdjis
University of California at Davis
nwberdjis@ucdavis.edu