In the first place, my sincere apologies for the incorrect spelling of
"entranced" in the posting where I mentioned Ada's reference to Jane
Austen:"...Dr Krolik, our local naturalist, to whom you,
Van, have referred, as Jane Austen might have phrased it, for the sake of rapid
narrative information (you recall Brown, don’t you, Smith? ..."
Here are Van's previous words related to Ada's
remark: " ‘I deduce,’ said the boy, ‘three main facts: that
not yet married Marina and her. married sister hibernated in my lieu de
naissance; that Marina had her own Dr Krolik, pour ainsi dire; and that the
orchids came from Demon who preferred to stay by the sea, his dark-blue
great-grandmother’."
Here is, also, what Nabokov wrote (LEL,Bowers, p.63) about Jane
Austen: "In our dealings with Jane Austen we had to make a
certain effort in order to join the ladies in the drawing room. In the case of
Dickens we remain at the table with our tawny port....I think we did...have some
degree of fun with her delicate patterns, with her collection of eggshells in
cotton wool. But the fun was forced. We had to slip into a certain mood; we had
to focus our eyes in a certain way. Personally I dislike porcelain and the
minor arts, but I have often forced myself to see some bit of precious
translucent china through the eyes of an expert and have discovered a vicarious
bliss in the process. Let us not forget that there are people who have devoted
to Jane all their lives, their ivy-clad lives..."
More information about the VN/EWilson exchanbes can be
easily obtained from John Updike's Introduction to the Bowers
edition.
In connection to the evils in "the queer world of
verbal transmigration" and its "turpitudes" (Cf.Verses and Versions, 2008,
p.2 "The Art of Translation"): "...how to describe that
ideal person, the perfect translator? Let us imagine two fair countries, From
and Into... the perfect translator should know the From language as well as he
does the Into language. He should also be aquainted with the manners,
traditions, fauna, flora and times of both countries....He should be of the same
sex as his author.." (p.15). I haven't yet found
Nabokov observations about women writers and
poets...