Ross Benjamin won an important award as the
translator of Michael Maar's original book about Nabokov. I wonder, though, if
he is not being considered more as Maar's ghost-writer into English for the
world of American readers and critics?
The Verso edition acknowledges the
following:
This edition was first published by Verso 2009.
(c) Verso 2009
Translation Ross Benjamin (c)2009.
First published as
Solus Rex: Die Schöne Böse Welt des Vladimir Nabokov.
Berlin Verlag 2007.
All rights reserved
How many English readers are informed that the
title of Maar's book is "Solus Rex: The Beautiful Malevolent World of Vladimir
Nabokov" ? (my translation of it is controversial: what's the intended meaning
of "Böse"? Angry?) Is it important? Maar's words in English come out
elegantly, although conversationally and instigatingly informal. I look
forward to reading it, at long last. Perhaps he'll be as incisive,
although not as vengefully unfair, as Nabokov's frist biographer, Andrew Field,
more keen on preserving the soul that he can interpret from the text than on
biographical facts. Biographies are, after all, a special kind of
fictionl.