Subject
A 1973 Entry on VN (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. Reference entries on VN often hilariously ill-informed,
but, on occasion, real gems.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
I came across a 1973 entry on Nabokov in _Webster's New World
Companion to English and American Literature_ which impressed me but of
which I was not aware before. It was written by R.V. Osbourn. Here is
the entry's final paragraph in case some other Nabokv-L subscribers have
not seen it either:
"Nabokov's enjoyment of pun, fun and parody, his irony, wit and play with
pompous readers, the intricate construction and oblique effects and his
disdain for literature of ideas have prompted criticism of his work as the
stylistically clever surface of a cynical aesthete, but such criticism
misses the underlying strength of feeling, the hatred of tyranny and
cruelty, the concern for art and sharp sense of the meretricious, and the
desire for texture in life."
Galya Diment
but, on occasion, real gems.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
I came across a 1973 entry on Nabokov in _Webster's New World
Companion to English and American Literature_ which impressed me but of
which I was not aware before. It was written by R.V. Osbourn. Here is
the entry's final paragraph in case some other Nabokv-L subscribers have
not seen it either:
"Nabokov's enjoyment of pun, fun and parody, his irony, wit and play with
pompous readers, the intricate construction and oblique effects and his
disdain for literature of ideas have prompted criticism of his work as the
stylistically clever surface of a cynical aesthete, but such criticism
misses the underlying strength of feeling, the hatred of tyranny and
cruelty, the concern for art and sharp sense of the meretricious, and the
desire for texture in life."
Galya Diment