Subject
Re: VN on Melville? (fwd)
Date
Body
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sergey Il'yn <isb@glas.apc.org>
------------------ At 10:53 2/28/97 -0800, you wrote: >Always
wondered...what was Nabokov's impression of >Melville? So far I've only
encountered N's famous >complaint that a poorly drawn butterfly on the
title >page of N's Collected Poems was as meaningless "as >would be a
picture of a tuna fish on the jacket of >Moby Dick." (The ferocious Sperm
Whale on the cover >of my Penguin Classic edition will never look the
>same). > >-- Andrew Robinson
----------------------------------------
"A chance selection of iambic incidents culled from the prose of 'Moby Dick'
appears in in the guises of 'a famous American poem' (Chapter Twelve)"
From VN "Introduction" to "Bend Sinister"
Also in TV-13 NY Interview (1965) - #5 in "Strong Opinions":
IN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION:
WHAT SCENES ONE WOULD LIKE TO HAVE FILMED:
...
Herman Melvill at breakfast, feeding a sardine to his cat.
So it was good impression, I think.
Sergey B. Il'in
<isb@glas.apc.org>
Moscow
Nashe delo veseloe.
From: Sergey Il'yn <isb@glas.apc.org>
------------------ At 10:53 2/28/97 -0800, you wrote: >Always
wondered...what was Nabokov's impression of >Melville? So far I've only
encountered N's famous >complaint that a poorly drawn butterfly on the
title >page of N's Collected Poems was as meaningless "as >would be a
picture of a tuna fish on the jacket of >Moby Dick." (The ferocious Sperm
Whale on the cover >of my Penguin Classic edition will never look the
>same). > >-- Andrew Robinson
----------------------------------------
"A chance selection of iambic incidents culled from the prose of 'Moby Dick'
appears in in the guises of 'a famous American poem' (Chapter Twelve)"
From VN "Introduction" to "Bend Sinister"
Also in TV-13 NY Interview (1965) - #5 in "Strong Opinions":
IN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION:
WHAT SCENES ONE WOULD LIKE TO HAVE FILMED:
...
Herman Melvill at breakfast, feeding a sardine to his cat.
So it was good impression, I think.
Sergey B. Il'in
<isb@glas.apc.org>
Moscow
Nashe delo veseloe.