Subject
VN & Larbaud
Date
Body
Brian Boyd recently called our attention to an extremely interesting essay
in the 31 July 1997 edition of the LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS. Entitled
"Diary" by Julian Evans, it discusses possible connections between French
modernist writer Valery Larbaud's work and LOLITA. Larbaud (1881-1957)
suffered a severe stroke in 1935 and fell victim to what Evans calls
"Locked-In Syndrome." Larbaud was unable to speak for the last 22 years
of his life. Although VN and Larbaud never met, they had several literary
acquaintances in common and VN undoubtedly knew of Larbaud and plight.
This prompts an idle thought. Many of us have pondered VN's
remark in his LOLITA "Afterword" that his first inkling of the pre-LOLITA
ENCHANTER was a news story about an ape in the Paris zoo that when at last
induced to make a drawing, reproduced the bars of his cage. Nabokov
follows this nugget with the disarming observation that he does not see
what the connection between news story and the novella might be.
I have not rechecked and may be wrong, but it is my hazy
recollection that Dieter Zimmer's investigation of the sources for the
ape in the zoo story did not turn up a newspaper source.
Don Johnson, Editor
in the 31 July 1997 edition of the LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS. Entitled
"Diary" by Julian Evans, it discusses possible connections between French
modernist writer Valery Larbaud's work and LOLITA. Larbaud (1881-1957)
suffered a severe stroke in 1935 and fell victim to what Evans calls
"Locked-In Syndrome." Larbaud was unable to speak for the last 22 years
of his life. Although VN and Larbaud never met, they had several literary
acquaintances in common and VN undoubtedly knew of Larbaud and plight.
This prompts an idle thought. Many of us have pondered VN's
remark in his LOLITA "Afterword" that his first inkling of the pre-LOLITA
ENCHANTER was a news story about an ape in the Paris zoo that when at last
induced to make a drawing, reproduced the bars of his cage. Nabokov
follows this nugget with the disarming observation that he does not see
what the connection between news story and the novella might be.
I have not rechecked and may be wrong, but it is my hazy
recollection that Dieter Zimmer's investigation of the sources for the
ape in the zoo story did not turn up a newspaper source.
Don Johnson, Editor