Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0001456, Tue, 19 Nov 1996 10:25:08 -0800

Subject
Re: intro to VN for teenagers (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Bill Blackwell <wblackwe@erols.com>

"Signs and Symbols" seems to please my Advanced Placement English
students, although they're more taken with the son's "referential mania"
than his parents' "loss of one joy after another." And I have drawn on
SPEAK MEMORY for examples of "personal writing" that is more than
personal. My high scholars were impressed by the vocabulary.
For one of my best students, the theophanic Sarah Kirschbaum, it was
PNIN that served as her introduction to Nabokov. During her middle
school years, while she was enduring some illness, her father read to
her a chapter each night. She liked the squirrels and went into a mild
swoon in describing the relief when the beautiful punch bowl proved not
to be cracked. Her father read LOLITA to her, but not until she was a
more worldly fifteen year old.