Subject
Re: Browning's door (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
That would really make lots of sense since Wellesley was a women's
college. It also would explain why Nabokov steers away from giving the
first name or an initial -- he is playing a trick on us all. The problem
with the date is then also explained since she was an accomplished poet
by then. She was also, of course, still a Barrett, and was yet to even
meet her future husband-to-be but that is precisely why Nabokov can play
this joke on us. He may have even foreseen that we'll look into Robert
Browning's biography -- which he probably knew -- find about his Russian
trip and try to connect it to Gogol this way. Gave him quite a few
chuckles, I am sure, at our expense.
Galya Diment
On Thu, 9 Feb 1995, > From: Naomi Pascal <nbpasc@u.washington.edu>
>
> ------------------ I wish I could remember exactly, and I will try to find
> the correct information about this, but I do recall some association
> between the Wellesley Library and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's door. I was
> a student at Wellesley when Nabokov taught there and took several courses
> in the Russian language from him.
>
> Naomi B. Pascal
> University of Washington Press
> nbpasc@u.washington.edu
>
That would really make lots of sense since Wellesley was a women's
college. It also would explain why Nabokov steers away from giving the
first name or an initial -- he is playing a trick on us all. The problem
with the date is then also explained since she was an accomplished poet
by then. She was also, of course, still a Barrett, and was yet to even
meet her future husband-to-be but that is precisely why Nabokov can play
this joke on us. He may have even foreseen that we'll look into Robert
Browning's biography -- which he probably knew -- find about his Russian
trip and try to connect it to Gogol this way. Gave him quite a few
chuckles, I am sure, at our expense.
Galya Diment
On Thu, 9 Feb 1995, > From: Naomi Pascal <nbpasc@u.washington.edu>
>
> ------------------ I wish I could remember exactly, and I will try to find
> the correct information about this, but I do recall some association
> between the Wellesley Library and Elizabeth Barrett Browning's door. I was
> a student at Wellesley when Nabokov taught there and took several courses
> in the Russian language from him.
>
> Naomi B. Pascal
> University of Washington Press
> nbpasc@u.washington.edu
>