Subject
[NABOKOV] S.Gwynn, Stan K-Bootle on Hirondelle... PS
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There are swallows in "The Defense".
The avenue was paved with sunflecks, and these spots, if you slitted your eyes, took on the aspect of regular light and dark squares... The urns that stood on stone pedestals at the four corners of the terrace threatened one another across their diagonals. Swallows soared: their flight recalled the motion of scissors swiftly cutting out some design...
If former mentions to swallow- hirondelles might suggest adultery, even murderous intentions, in The Defense swallows, like the black urns, bathroom tiles, sun-patches and checkered curtains were among a multitude of different things (randomly chosen?) that haunted Luzhin's imagination by implying a fateful "design".
And then we find waxwings, sparrows, ravens...
I'm sure there are more indications of Lammermoor, in ADA, perhaps mainly related to Sir Walter Scott and his writings.
VN also mentions La Traviatta ( in "The Defense", suggesting a special penchant for prostitutes in the Luzhin household), La Bohème ( in KQK). There are probably many others ( Dmitri Nabokov, and Pavarotti, shared a performance of La Bohème...).
Stan Kelly-Bootle wrote: I start to wonder if it matters where & how Nabokov acquired his enormously rich store of words and idioms straddling so many languages. He read so widely, listened abundantly, neologized freely. I see him plucking out seeds and hints of seeds almost subconsciously, building a richly-linked lexical matrix in his remarkably retentive mind.
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The avenue was paved with sunflecks, and these spots, if you slitted your eyes, took on the aspect of regular light and dark squares... The urns that stood on stone pedestals at the four corners of the terrace threatened one another across their diagonals. Swallows soared: their flight recalled the motion of scissors swiftly cutting out some design...
If former mentions to swallow- hirondelles might suggest adultery, even murderous intentions, in The Defense swallows, like the black urns, bathroom tiles, sun-patches and checkered curtains were among a multitude of different things (randomly chosen?) that haunted Luzhin's imagination by implying a fateful "design".
And then we find waxwings, sparrows, ravens...
I'm sure there are more indications of Lammermoor, in ADA, perhaps mainly related to Sir Walter Scott and his writings.
VN also mentions La Traviatta ( in "The Defense", suggesting a special penchant for prostitutes in the Luzhin household), La Bohème ( in KQK). There are probably many others ( Dmitri Nabokov, and Pavarotti, shared a performance of La Bohème...).
Stan Kelly-Bootle wrote: I start to wonder if it matters where & how Nabokov acquired his enormously rich store of words and idioms straddling so many languages. He read so widely, listened abundantly, neologized freely. I see him plucking out seeds and hints of seeds almost subconsciously, building a richly-linked lexical matrix in his remarkably retentive mind.
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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