Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0000932, Tue, 30 Jan 1996 10:23:14 -0800

Subject
Re: VN's worst novel? (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. Roy Johnson, writer of the note below, is the author of
the year-long series of discussions of VN's short stories that have been
appearing on NABOKV-L.

In your message dated Thursday 25, January 1996 you wrote :

I'm with David Slavitt on this one. MARY has its charms - and I feel that
VN is to be commended for not over-reaching himself at his first attempt
at the longer form. In fact purists might wish to argue that it's more
of a novella.

But ADA is simply over self-indulgent, and yes, it suffers from the
same weaknesses VN pointed out in FINNEGANS WAKE - "an admirable
failure" (or words to that effect)

[The author is 56.]
--
Dr Roy Johnson | Roy@mantex.demon.co.uk
PO Box 100 | Tel +44 0161 432 5811
Manchester UK | Fax +44 0161 443 2766