Subject
Gerschenkron vs. Nabokov]
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EDITOR's NOTE. NABOKV-L thanks Neal McCabe for this timely and
informative response.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Gerschenkron vs. Nabokov
Date: Sun, 9 Jun 2002 16:46:53 -0700
From: "Neal McCabe" <nealmccabe@earthlink.net>
To: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gte.net>
On pages 196-201 of (the un-indexed) "The Fly Swatter," Nicholas
Dawidoff's interesting memoir of his grandfather, Harvard economist
Alexander Gerschenkron, there is a discussion of the Wilson/Nabokov
Onegin controversy, during which Gerschenkron wrote a 20-page review of
the Nabokov's Onegin translation for "Modern Philology entitled "A
Manufactured Monument?" Dawidoff writes: "[It] is no simple polemic.
Nabokov is praised for the great pains he took to maintain precise
etymological fidelity to every berry, tree, and animal in the poem. And
yet for all of those strenuous efforst toward literal fidelity,
[Gerschenkron]'s intimate knowledge of the Gallicisms, the peasant
dialects, the esoteric lexicon, and the folksy turns of phrase that are
such dominant features of Pushkin's Russian led him to conclude that
Nabokov had created a most inaccurate translation." Dawidoff points out
that "Nabokov had made a point of answering and rebutting ever last
critic of the translation that had taken so many years of his life, but
in [Gerschenkron]'s case he did not reply." He then quotes the
supportive testimony of Alexander Dolinin: "What I noticed is that all
the objections and notions of Gerschenkron were so correct that Nabokov
quietly made all of Gerschenkron's corrections when he put out his
second edition of 'Eugene Onegin'." In a fascinating postscript,
Dawidoff points out that in "Ada" there is a "snide reference to the
'reverent' and 'chippy' lexicographer Dr. Gerschizhevsky.
Gerschizhevsky was a Joycean portmanteau melding Gerschenkron and
Dmitry Cizevsky, another Russian-born Harvard Slavic scholar who had
once written a commentary on 'Onegin' that Nabokov despised. The New
York Times asked [Gerschenkron] how he felt about this lampoon, and the
response was brief: 'A small man's revenge'." Ouch.
informative response.
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Gerschenkron vs. Nabokov
Date: Sun, 9 Jun 2002 16:46:53 -0700
From: "Neal McCabe" <nealmccabe@earthlink.net>
To: "D. Barton Johnson" <chtodel@gte.net>
On pages 196-201 of (the un-indexed) "The Fly Swatter," Nicholas
Dawidoff's interesting memoir of his grandfather, Harvard economist
Alexander Gerschenkron, there is a discussion of the Wilson/Nabokov
Onegin controversy, during which Gerschenkron wrote a 20-page review of
the Nabokov's Onegin translation for "Modern Philology entitled "A
Manufactured Monument?" Dawidoff writes: "[It] is no simple polemic.
Nabokov is praised for the great pains he took to maintain precise
etymological fidelity to every berry, tree, and animal in the poem. And
yet for all of those strenuous efforst toward literal fidelity,
[Gerschenkron]'s intimate knowledge of the Gallicisms, the peasant
dialects, the esoteric lexicon, and the folksy turns of phrase that are
such dominant features of Pushkin's Russian led him to conclude that
Nabokov had created a most inaccurate translation." Dawidoff points out
that "Nabokov had made a point of answering and rebutting ever last
critic of the translation that had taken so many years of his life, but
in [Gerschenkron]'s case he did not reply." He then quotes the
supportive testimony of Alexander Dolinin: "What I noticed is that all
the objections and notions of Gerschenkron were so correct that Nabokov
quietly made all of Gerschenkron's corrections when he put out his
second edition of 'Eugene Onegin'." In a fascinating postscript,
Dawidoff points out that in "Ada" there is a "snide reference to the
'reverent' and 'chippy' lexicographer Dr. Gerschizhevsky.
Gerschizhevsky was a Joycean portmanteau melding Gerschenkron and
Dmitry Cizevsky, another Russian-born Harvard Slavic scholar who had
once written a commentary on 'Onegin' that Nabokov despised. The New
York Times asked [Gerschenkron] how he felt about this lampoon, and the
response was brief: 'A small man's revenge'." Ouch.