Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters, 1940-1977 - Hardcover

Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich; Nabokov, Dmitri

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151641900 ISBN 13: 9780151641901

Publisher: Harcourt, 1989

Synopsis

More than four hundred letters chronicle the development of Nabokov's literary career, recording his struggles in the publishing world, the battles over "Lolita," and his relationship with his wife

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Reviews

Nabokoviana for fans of VN's every facet turns up throughout this comprehensive collection of letters gathered by the author's son and Bruccoli ( Some Sort of Grandeur). Extending from the author's 1940 arrival in America to his death in Switzerland in 1977, the letters are written mainly to publishers, literary friends and editors. They reveal Nabokov's sure sense of himself as a major literary figure (a reminder to publisher M. Girodias: "I wrote LOLITA."), provide glimpses of his politics ("I never have attended, nor ever will attend, any function to which Soviet agents are invited."), his teaching career at Wellesley and Cornell, and his lepidopteran pursuits. Of particular interest is the anguished attention required to find publishers for Lolita ; he called the complex legalities surrounding that book "lolitigating." Letters to New Yorker editor Katherine White evince a warm mutual regard; Nabokov's exasperated affection for Edmund Wilson is another theme. Revealing his spleenic side, his good humor and above all his wit (he said titling a translation of Gogol ' s Dead Souls as Home Life was "like calling a version of ' Fleurs du Mal'--'The Daisychain.' "), this collection presents an intimate, invaluable view of the writer writing. Illustrations not seen by PW .
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

These articulate if often astringent letters follow the novelist's life from his arrival in America until his death in Switzerland. Two subjects, literature and lepidoptera (a passionate avocation), predominate. Recipients range from friends and relatives to editors, translators, and interviewers, to one of whom Nabokov eloquently declares, "my style is all I have." Nabokov's soured friendship with fellow writer Edmund Wilson already has been recorded in The Nabokov-Wilson Letters ( LJ 4/15/79). This new volume constitutes a fascinating tour of the anteroom of his art; the study, as always, remains locked. For most collections of modern literature. --Grove Koger, Boise P.L., Id.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harcourt
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0151641900
• ISBN 13: 9780151641901
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 12
• Editor: Bruccoli Matthew Joseph