Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0003355, Tue, 8 Sep 1998 13:53:13 -0700

Subject
Re: Morris article in NYBR Bookend, Aug 23, 98 (fwd)
Date
Body
At 10:28 AM 9/5/98 -0700, you wrote:
>From: Jeff Edmunds <jhe@psulias.psu.edu>
...
>What in the world is 'lepidopteral prodigality'?

Hypallage. (Assuming the flashing, floating lines, not the prodigality,
are supposed to be lepidopteral.) I think Nabokov liked this figure, and
used it better, but I can't seem to remember (another hypallage) any
examples--and it's still not my favorite.

>>Morris also praises herein "Appel's fascinatingly detailed annotated
>edition,"
>>and says, that on his eighth reading he "was, as usual, in a state of deep
>>despair over the impossibility of ever writing a sentence that could compare
>>with any of the flashing, floating lines that Nabokov released with such
>>lepidopteral prodigality: at the bottom of the hill, in the summer dusk, a
>>furry warmth, golden midges." Actually, not bad. And "Notwithstanding my
love
>>for Dolores Haze, I had to agree, as 'Ulysses' began to rise like a great
>>whale [!] to the top of our subsequent polls, that no other novel of the
>>century bulks as large, or gives off such wild underwater music."
>>
>