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Re: Herzen and Nabokov
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Dear Carolyn,
Yes, there was a long article on Nabokov and Herzen by Ilia Kalinin in
"Novoe Literaturnoe obozrenie." Here is a link to Part I:
http://magazines.russ.ru/nlo/2002/58/kalin.html
The author noticed a resemblance of two titles, VN's "Drugie berega" and
Herzen's "S togo berega," and on this shaky ground built up a clever
philosophical comparison of Nabokov's and Herzen's autobiographies, both
written in exile. He seems to overlook, though, that Nabokov was fully
aware that his title echoed that of Herzen but thought a connection
irrelevant. In a letter to S.Grinberg he wrote that he had finally chosen
"Drugie berega" for a title of his Russian autobiography because he
believed that Herzen could be disregarded and Sophia Pregel (a minor emigre
poet who had a book with the same title) ignored. What Nabokov didn't want
to lose was a subtle Pushkinian association as "Drugie berega" evokes a
line "Inye berega, inye volny" ("Other shores, other waves") from Pushkin's
meditative poem "...Vnov' ia posetil" in which the poet, like VN,
reminiscences about his youth.
As for your Botkin posting, "Nikto b," unforunately, is meaningless by
itself as it can be used only as a part of a phrase with double negation.
We can recombine the letters into "kto b ni" ("whoever") but again without
a verb it doesn't make much sense. Nabokov's anagrams are
usually grammatically correct and self-contained but it is not what we've
got
here.
Alexander Dolinin
>http://magazines.russ.ru/nlo/2002/58/kalin.html
e
At 06:53 AM 10/29/2006 -0800, you wrote:
> > [EDNOTE. Sandy Klein sends this link to Eric Ormsby review, in the New
> > York Sun, of a new volume of Ivan Bunin's fiction, in which Ormsby
> > compares Bunin to Chekhov and Nabokov. -- SES]
>
>To the Russians & Russophiles on the List,
>
>The above reminds me of a question - - has anyone speculated on the
>original title of VN's autobiography, Drugie Berega? Could it have
>anything to do with Herzen?
>
>Carolyn
>
><http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html>Search the Nabokv-L
>archive at UCSB
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>
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>co-editors.
>
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>
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Yes, there was a long article on Nabokov and Herzen by Ilia Kalinin in
"Novoe Literaturnoe obozrenie." Here is a link to Part I:
http://magazines.russ.ru/nlo/2002/58/kalin.html
The author noticed a resemblance of two titles, VN's "Drugie berega" and
Herzen's "S togo berega," and on this shaky ground built up a clever
philosophical comparison of Nabokov's and Herzen's autobiographies, both
written in exile. He seems to overlook, though, that Nabokov was fully
aware that his title echoed that of Herzen but thought a connection
irrelevant. In a letter to S.Grinberg he wrote that he had finally chosen
"Drugie berega" for a title of his Russian autobiography because he
believed that Herzen could be disregarded and Sophia Pregel (a minor emigre
poet who had a book with the same title) ignored. What Nabokov didn't want
to lose was a subtle Pushkinian association as "Drugie berega" evokes a
line "Inye berega, inye volny" ("Other shores, other waves") from Pushkin's
meditative poem "...Vnov' ia posetil" in which the poet, like VN,
reminiscences about his youth.
As for your Botkin posting, "Nikto b," unforunately, is meaningless by
itself as it can be used only as a part of a phrase with double negation.
We can recombine the letters into "kto b ni" ("whoever") but again without
a verb it doesn't make much sense. Nabokov's anagrams are
usually grammatically correct and self-contained but it is not what we've
got
here.
Alexander Dolinin
>http://magazines.russ.ru/nlo/2002/58/kalin.html
e
At 06:53 AM 10/29/2006 -0800, you wrote:
> > [EDNOTE. Sandy Klein sends this link to Eric Ormsby review, in the New
> > York Sun, of a new volume of Ivan Bunin's fiction, in which Ormsby
> > compares Bunin to Chekhov and Nabokov. -- SES]
>
>To the Russians & Russophiles on the List,
>
>The above reminds me of a question - - has anyone speculated on the
>original title of VN's autobiography, Drugie Berega? Could it have
>anything to do with Herzen?
>
>Carolyn
>
><http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html>Search the Nabokv-L
>archive at UCSB
>
><mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu>Contact the Editors
>
>All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
>co-editors.
>
><http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm>Visit Zembla
>
><http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm>View Nabokv-L Policies
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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