Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0003858, Tue, 6 Apr 1999 11:24:59 -0700

Subject
Re: Auberon Waugh (fwd)
Date
Body
>From Mary Bellino (iambe@javanet.com):

Auberon Waugh is Evelyn's eldest son. Although he's written four or
five novels, he's primarily a journalist and is probably best known as a
columnist for various British newspapers including at one point the
infamous "Private Eye." His autobiography _Will This Do?_ was published
last year by Carroll & Graf; it contains a fair amount of material on
his father.
Evelyn himself may be described as a fan of VN, albeit one with a
somewhat idiosyncratic view of him. Several comments on Lolita can be
found in the standard edition of his letters (ed. Stannard); more on
Lolita and some interesting remarks on Pale Fire appear in _The Letters
of Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford_. I posted the latter to the list some
time ago, so I won't repeat them. Evelyn and VN shared, I think, some
narrative techniques--both were influenced by film as a model for
fiction and they were both masters at conveying narrative information in
an indirect or occult way--but Auberon's fiction is devoid of technical
innovation, and his autobiography isn't particularly well-written
either.
Mary Bellino
.