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Re: Query on quote from intro to Bend Sinister
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SES on..."Mike Stauss's question about the quotation from the introduction to Bend Sinister. On the structure of Nabokov's introductions, by the way, I recommend Charles Nicol's essay in the first issue of Nabokov Studies."
JM: I checked VN&EW correspondence about any discrepancy between VN's Introduction to BS ("Bend Sinister was the first novel I wrote in America, and that was half a dozen years after she and I had adopted each other. The greater part of the book was composed in the winter and spring of 1945-1946, at a particularly cloudless and vigorous period of life. My health was excellent. My daily consumption of cigarettes had reached the four-package mark." 9 September 1963, Montreux ) and recollected items from his letter to Edmund Wilson. From their exchanges I gleaned that VN considered Bend Sinister ready in his letter dated May 25,1946. In July 18 the same year, he wrote to his friend "I am recuperating (from what was practically a 'nervous breakdown') in New Hampshire..." and, at last, in September 13, 1946 we find: "I am quite well again, - better in fact, than I ever was." (Dear Bunny,Dear Volodya"p.192-197).
I'm sure there'll be an explanation about Nabokov's illness in May 1946 and on his recovery, in Brian Boyd's AY.
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JM: I checked VN&EW correspondence about any discrepancy between VN's Introduction to BS ("Bend Sinister was the first novel I wrote in America, and that was half a dozen years after she and I had adopted each other. The greater part of the book was composed in the winter and spring of 1945-1946, at a particularly cloudless and vigorous period of life. My health was excellent. My daily consumption of cigarettes had reached the four-package mark." 9 September 1963, Montreux ) and recollected items from his letter to Edmund Wilson. From their exchanges I gleaned that VN considered Bend Sinister ready in his letter dated May 25,1946. In July 18 the same year, he wrote to his friend "I am recuperating (from what was practically a 'nervous breakdown') in New Hampshire..." and, at last, in September 13, 1946 we find: "I am quite well again, - better in fact, than I ever was." (Dear Bunny,Dear Volodya"p.192-197).
I'm sure there'll be an explanation about Nabokov's illness in May 1946 and on his recovery, in Brian Boyd's AY.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/