Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0003283, Mon, 10 Aug 1998 10:03:25 -0700

Subject
Re: Barabtarlo on "A Russian Beauty" [Krasavitsa] (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>


It is interesting that Gene mentions Bunin because I was going to suggest
that VN's story -- and the name of its main protagonist -- somehow reminds
me of Bunin's "Light Breathing" (Legkoe dykhanie) and can be seen as a
version of what might have happened to that Olga if she had not been
killed by a jealous lover. I then chose not to include it in my
response because I thought that my perception may have been unduly
influenced by my very recent re-reading of that particular Bunin
story with my undergrads (in Clarence Brown's 20th Century Reader), so
I wanted to think it through some more.

Galya Diment