My very alert students spotted an interesting and fairly important 
variant in the published translations, by the author and Dmitri 
Nabokov, of the 1931 short story "Terra Incognita."  An earlier 
version, published for example, in the "Portable Nabokov" concludes 
with these two sentences (CAPS MINE):

"My last motion was to open the book, which was damp with my sweat, for 
I absolutely had to make a note of something; but, alas, it slipped out 
of my hand.  I groped all along the blanket, but THE BOOK was no longer 
there."

The later variant, in the collected "Stories," for example, has this as 
a final sentence (CAPS STILL MINE):

"I groped all along the blanket, but IT was no longer there."

Is it the book, or the blanket, which is missing.  This seems to me not 
an insignificant difference, and it might cause one to rethink how the 
story is read.  Can anyone (including, perhaps, the translator himself) 
shed any light on this?  What is the Russian original, I wonder?  
Thanks.

--------------------------------------
Sam

Dr. Samuel Schuman
Garrey Carruthers Distinguished Chair 
  in Honors
The University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM  (505) 277-4396

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