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Subject:
RE: [NABOKV-L] SIGHTINGS: "PF" quality footnote |
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From:
<b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz> |
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Date:
Wed, 21 Feb 2007 14:29:27 +1300 |
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To:
<NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU> |
It takes an ear of the purest tin--a kind of metallurgical wonder--to make these assertions. Nabokov was a great novelist but a minor poet. The diction of "Pale Fire" dips into poetic flabbiness with the very second line ("false azure" indeed), and while there are passages of tremendous beauty and cutting wit, VN just isn't in the same ballpark as top-drawer Frost. No comparison. Deal with it, Nabokovians.
James Marcus /New York, NY/HOUSE OF MIRTH, July 28,2005