Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0005972, Mon, 21 May 2001 16:51:04 -0700

Subject
[Fwd: Query - pregnancy in Ada]
Date
Body
"Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" wrote:

> "He" is correct, according to both the MS and VN's correction in his first
> edition. "She was pregnant" (the printing house's attempted correction in
> the first edition) would hardly change to the unlikely "He was pregnant"
> without authorial intervention, would it?
>
> Getting pregnant at the drop of a hat would be an odd method; Cordula says
> she'd "cause a mule to foal by just looking on."
>
> Brian Boyd
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: D. Barton Johnson
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Sent: 22/05/2001 6:49 a.m.
> Subject: Re: Query - pregnancy in Ada
>
> EDITOR's NOTE. The Library of America edition of ADA, which is
> supposedly definitive, has "HE." I have always assumed the sentence
> meant Van was pregnant with his first book. Cordulla does mention
> somewhere, I think, that she gets pregnant at the drop of hat.
>
> Fran?oise JONATHAN wrote:
>
> > Could anybody tell me if there is a misprint at the very end of Part
> > One in the Penguin edition of Ada: Should we read "she was pregnant"
> > or rather "he was pregnant", as several studies as well as the French
> > translation suggest? Thanks for your answer Fran?oise RICHARD-
> > JONATHAN