Dear Brian,
I found the Annotated extremely helpful, especially the mini-essays or
longer passages that Appel appends here and there. I really was annoyed
by the translation of every instance of French, because my French is not
great by any means but he translates many of the simplest French words,
even some that are pretty international. I found myself looking up the
notes to certain French phrases hoping there were be some in-depth
reference, but it was just a simply translation. But, of course, this is
helpful to anyone who has no French. I think you must be pretty advanced
in Nabokov studies to be disappointed by the Annotations? The
Annotations are quite old now. Should they be updated?
Brian Howell
You pose an excellent question. I skipped over Appel's mini-essays. Perhaps they should not be included as notes, but appended as separate essays? A note should not really interrupt the reader's flow for terribly long stretches.
The annotated This or That is usually a humongous (sp?) disappointment. One barely has time to read the first two words when the annotator Kinbote-like leaps in to enlighten us as to the history of the the word "the." The poor reader soon gives up.
Martin Gardner's Annotated Alice is the original & great exception. Of course we also have VN's EO which is a great work in itself - - and according to many much greater than the translation it accompanies. VN himself was a fan of Charles Singleton's commentary on Dante.
I wonder if anyone has analyzed what makes a great annotated text? It would be interesting to hear of examples of excellent annotated texts from the list members.
Carolyn