EDNOTE. Maurice Couturier is a distinguished
scholar, translator, editor, and novelist. He has published three
books on VN: NABOKOV (Lausanne: l'Age d'homme, 1979); NABOKOV ou la tyrannie de
l'auteur (Paris: Seuil, 1993) and LA FIGURE DE AUTEUR (Paris: Seuil, 1995). (The
last deals only in part with VN).
----- Original Message -----
Here is a brief notice of my current work on Nabokov: I have just finished
a thickish book in French, entitled La cruauté du désir: lecture
psychanalyique de Nabokov, a Lacanian study of the novels which remains very
close to the texts and never tries to deal with the author himself. Yet I can
hear Nabokov's grumblings from here. It is while translating Lolita that
I felt the necessity to write this book. I think it offers new perspectives,
never mentioned so far, but of course I am a bad judge. I'd be grateful if
someone there could suggest the name of an American publisher willing to bring
out this book in English.
The Pléiade edition of the Nabokov's novels, of which I am the chief editor,
is back on track. Gallimard took the decision only weeks ago. Volume 2 ought to
come out in 2005. It will contain the following works:
The Gift, The
Enchanter, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, Bend Sinister, Lolita, plus
Speak, Memory.
I am currently writing a novel staged in the US.
That's all for now.