Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0000867, Tue, 19 Dec 1995 15:53:43 -0800

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Re: QUERY: RLSK (fwd)
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From: Sam Schuman <schumans@CAA.MRS.UMN.EDU>

Might one add to Brian Boyd's fine annotation of Sebastian's bookshelf that it
is, obviously, framed by two of the three Shakespearean plays Nabokov most often
cites. (Macbeth is the third) Hamlet is, by a long shot, VN's favorite;
probably cited throughout the works as often as the rest of the Sh. corpus all
together. But Lear pops up often, too, e.g., "never, never, never, never,
never" in Despair. It is, I believe, appropriate and typical that Shakespeare
serves as a kind of frame for Stevenson, Proust, Wells, Chekhov, et al.