Subject
Potato Elf query (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR'S NOTE. Could list subscribers check their copies of the new
Nabokov collected short stories volume and report whether the "The Potato
Elf" is missing its last section? In the full text presented
in the 1973 McGraw-Hill _A Russian Beauty_, the end of section 7 of "The
Potato Elf" reads "...brow would wrinkle as the dwarf pondered a move"
(p. 244). Section 8 begins "Eight years elapsed" (245) and ends "I don't
know anything. My son died a few days ago" (251).
----------------------------------------------
In reading and rereading the short fiction of Nabokov in the
new Knopf volume I came across what looks like a scandalous blunder. The
entire eighth section of "The Potato Elf" (some seven pages of the story
as published in A RUSSIAN BEAUTY) has been omitted. I cannot find the
slightest justification for this in the editorial apparatus. The ending of
the story has simply been lopped off. The ending is preposterous enough
when it IS there, but when it isn't . . . I have notified Knopf of this,
though they have not had the time to reply. If any members of the list
can explain this lapse to me before I make a fool of myself in print, I
would be most obliged. But if I am right, caveat emptor./ CB
Clarence Brown, Professor of Comparative Literature
Department of Comparative Literature
Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. 08544
(609) 258-4027 (FAX: 258-1873) <CB@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU>
Nabokov collected short stories volume and report whether the "The Potato
Elf" is missing its last section? In the full text presented
in the 1973 McGraw-Hill _A Russian Beauty_, the end of section 7 of "The
Potato Elf" reads "...brow would wrinkle as the dwarf pondered a move"
(p. 244). Section 8 begins "Eight years elapsed" (245) and ends "I don't
know anything. My son died a few days ago" (251).
----------------------------------------------
In reading and rereading the short fiction of Nabokov in the
new Knopf volume I came across what looks like a scandalous blunder. The
entire eighth section of "The Potato Elf" (some seven pages of the story
as published in A RUSSIAN BEAUTY) has been omitted. I cannot find the
slightest justification for this in the editorial apparatus. The ending of
the story has simply been lopped off. The ending is preposterous enough
when it IS there, but when it isn't . . . I have notified Knopf of this,
though they have not had the time to reply. If any members of the list
can explain this lapse to me before I make a fool of myself in print, I
would be most obliged. But if I am right, caveat emptor./ CB
Clarence Brown, Professor of Comparative Literature
Department of Comparative Literature
Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. 08544
(609) 258-4027 (FAX: 258-1873) <CB@PUCC.PRINCETON.EDU>