Subject
Re: The LATHER Award (fwd)
From
Date
Body
From Gennady Barabtarlo <gragb@showme.missouri.edu>
The oddest by far of the dustjackets of all VN's books are those found
on the Phaedra (first) editions of the mid-60s, and this is not
because of the cover design (unambitious and fast) but rather because
of their inimitable flap-blurbs which quite really open and close the
book - for those,a t least, who happen to have the jackets preserved on
it. As Aldwinckle's copies do, I will give them here for the benefit,
merriment, and bewilderment of those who have no access to those quaint
texts. This is no usual commercial oatmeal; these are lyrical tracts
after a fashion. Both Phaedra's origin and fate are densely clouded,
and it has been suggested that it was a convenient shell for an
enterprise that was supposed to smuggle printed matter into the red
Territories. Two peculiar features seem to lend hand to this
supposition: first, an almost inexhaustible supply of Phaedra's
Russian Lolitas, hard and soft, was offered by a shady emigre bookshop
in New York 20 years later, at its original price; and secondly, EVERY
one of these editions gives a different address of the publusher:
Phaedra moved from 630 5th in 1965 (The Eye) to 220 E 42nd. in 1966
(Quartet) to 27 Washington Square same year (Waltz) to 156 5th in 1967
(Lolita). A very mobile house indeed.
Mark, by the way, that today is April 2nd, and so this is not a legpull
as someone might suspect. Here it goes:
The Eye:
"In Lolita, an inspector at the State line peers scrupulously [!] in
the car and says, 'Any honey?" as the seducer and the nymphet sit side
by side. In the course of the flight, a very special experience, the
hero-narrator undergoes a reversal of roles.
In The Eye, the protagonist changes roles through distorting mirrors;
at the end he is the center of two images, the indentity of another
man.
A master of prose, and a poet, critics say "authentic Nabokovian
English," [sic passim], Mr Nabokov has been compared to James Joyce, to
Proust, to Graham Greene, to Koestler; Mr Nathaniel Reicheck has
suggested that with Nabokov "the poet goes beyond the limits of his
art"; and Mr F.W.Dupee has written: "He has a mind too rich to be
impoverished by ideas." And rightly so, as Mr Nabokov says himself: "my
books are not only blessed by a total lack of [...] specular
predicament as his."
In short, Nabokov is something which has happened to American
literature; in fact, Lolita produced such an impact on American
publishers who first saw the manuscript, the novel was finally
published by a small house in Paris [sic, verbatim]; the real challenge
in Lolita appeared to be, at the time, too tremendous.
Mr Nabokov is the author of several novels, a first-rate memoir of his
Russian childhood and youth, a profound study of Gogol, learned work on
the subject of Lepidoptera, a trasnlation of Pushkin;s Eugene Onegin.
He has been able to perfect and English prose whose flexibility is
adapted to an astonishing range.
This new novel, The Eye, presents memorable characters, expatriates in
Berlin, from paupers to successful businessmen. As Mr nabokov says,
'Tracking down [..] ecstatic requital.".
<italic><fontfamily><param>Times</param><bigger><bigger><bigger>NABOKOV'S
QUARTET</bigger></bigger></bigger></fontfamily></italic><fontfamily><param>Times</param><bigger><bigger><bigger>
</bigger></bigger>THE FOUR STORIES IN THIS VOLUME, TWO PUBLISHED FOR
THE FIRST TIME IN THIS COURT-TRY, AND THE OTHER TWO, PREVIOUSLY
PUBLISHED IN THE NEW YORKER AND ESQUIRE, ADD LUSTER TO A SHARPLY
ILLUMINATED WRITER.
NABOKOV SHOWS A DISTINCTIVE ABILITY TO HANDLE DREAMS AS REALITY AND
REALITY AS A DREAM; IN THE STORY "AN AFFAIR OF HONOR," A PUNY SPIRIT, A
COWARD, MANAGES TO OBLITERATE REALITY IN FAVOR OF A CONVENIENT DREAM,
THAT THE OTHER MAN IN THE DUEL RAN AWAY, NOT BE.
THE STORY "VISIT TO A MUSEUM" IS SPUN LIKE HONEY FIBERS, PRESENTING THE
FAMILIAR WALLS OF A MUSEUM LIKE THE EPIDERMIS OF A LOVER.
IN "LIK," ONE OF THE LONGER STORIES, THE READER IS DELIGHTED TO MEET
ONCE AGAIN MEN OUT OF DOSTOYEVSKI, A VICTIM, WHO SEEMS TO HAVE THE SOUL
OF A GIRL, AND IS NOT A DUPE TODAY AS HE WAS IN HIS YOUTH, DANCING AWAY
FROM THE MAN WHO TORTURED HIM IN YEARS PAST, BUT ALSO DANCING CLOSE,
AND THE SADIST WHO NEEDS HIM MORE THAN HE NEEDS BREAD, IS DRIVEN TO
SUICIDE WHEN THE VICTIM FINALLY SHAKES LOOSE HIS OWN PART OF A SICK
SPIRIT.
"THE VANE SISTERS" ARE PAINTED ON THAT BY NOW VERY FAMILIAR BACKGROUND
</bigger>
<bold><italic>(Continued on back flop)</italic></bold>
<italic>(Continued from front flap)</italic>
<bigger>FOR AMERICAN READERS, THE SCENARIO OF LOLITA. IN TURN, ONE IS
REMINDED OF LOLITA'S MOTHER, OF LOLITA HERSELF; MR. NABOKOV IS JUST AS
ABLE TO DESCRIBE, WITH UTTER INTIMACY, THAT SPECIAL WAY GREAT WRITERS
HAVE TO DESCRIBE, A LAWN IN BERLIN, A LAWN IN UP STATE NEW YORK. BUT
THEN THE VANE SISTERS, AS MUCH AS LOLITA'S MOTHER, HAVE THAT PARTICULAR
AMERICAN FACE AND BODY, AND NO WOMAN IN BERLIN HAS THE SAME FACE, NO
RUSSIAN WOMAN IN THE NOVEL THE EYE, OR IN THE PLAY THE WALTZ INVENTION,
HAS THE SAME FACE. HOW MANY WRITERS ARE ABLE TO WORK IN MORE THAN ONE
COUNTRY?
FOR THE STUDENT OF THE SHORT STORY, THESE STORIES REPRESENT A PRICELESS
LESSON, OR RATHER, A NUMBER OF LESSONS, ALL VERY VIVID.
ON OPENING A VOLUME BY TOLSTOY, ONE OF COURSE IS SCENTED WITH GREATNESS
AT ONCE, BUT TO KNOW, UPON OPENING A BOOK BY VLADIMIR NABOKOV, THAT THE
AUTHOR IS WITH US, ALIVE, ONE IS SCENTED TWICE.
WE ARE VERY PROUD TO HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO PUBLISH THESE FOUR
STORIES.</bigger>
<bigger><bigger>$4.95
<bold>THE WALTZ INVENTION</bold>
by
Vladimir Nabokov
</bigger>MR. NABOKOV TELLS US IN "THE WALTZ INVENTION" THAT OUR
SALVATION TODAY RESTS ON A PERFECT UNDERSTANDING OF THE HUMAN HEART.
"THE WALTZ INVENTION," WRITTEN WHEN ONLY A HANDFUL OF SCIENTISTS WERE
CONCERNED WITH ATOMIC POSSIBILITIES, COULD HAVE BEEN READ AS A
PUZZLING, INCREDIBLE FANTASY IN THOSE DAYS, BUT OF COURSE TODAY A MAN
LIKE WALTZ IS AT THE CENTER OF OUR NIGHTMARES.
WE HAD BETTER HAVE A REALISTIC UNDERSTANDING ESPECIALLY OF A TYRANT'S
HEART IN OUR FISSIONABLE AGE, MR. NABOKOV SAYS.
SALVATOR WALTZ IS IN POSSESSION OF AN INFERNAL MACHINE. HE CAN OPERATE
IT AT WILL; AND THE MACHINE IS HIDDEN AWAY FROM ALL EYE IN THE
SYMBOLICAL COUNTRY OF WHICH WALTZ IS A CITIZEN.
WITH THE SAME INTRICATE LEVELS OF BRILLIANCY AS VLADIMIR NABOKOV'S
OTHER WORLD ACCLAIMED TALES, "THE WALTZ INVENTION", WRITTEN IN A PLAY
FORM IN 1938, IS A CLASSIC TRAGEDY AND A COMEDY.
WHEN WALTZ'S HEART IS FINALLY BARE, WE SHIVER. THE LESSON IS THAT
ABSOLUTE POWER IN THE HANDS OF ONE MAN, OR ONE NATION,
IS FOLLY.
WALTZ BECOMES PRIME MINISTER. HE BLOWS UP HIS NEIGHBORS.
BUT THE FRIGHTENING MESSAGE IS DELIVERED WITH A SHUTTLE TO 'COMEDY, AS
INDEED THE ENDING IS A HAPPY ONE, BECAUSE SALVATOR WALTZ IS NOT ALL
THERE.
JUST THE SAME, BEFORE WE CAN SIGH WITH RELIEF, WE SEE A MONSTER OF
TOTAL SELFISH-
(CONTINUED ON BACK FLAP)
(CONTINUED FROM FRONT FLAP)
NESS TRAMP ALL UNDERFOOT. WALTZ IS CLAMORING FOR WHORES, SERVICE AND
SERVITUDE. BUT ONE MAN WHO SAYS NO TO HIM, IN DEFENSE OF HIS DAUGHTERS
HONOR, MARKS HIS FALL.
WHEN WALTZ'S STAR IS ABOUT TO FADE BECAUSE OF THE UNFLINCHING COURAGE
OF ONE MAN, EVEN IN A WORLD WHERE THE SMOKE IS RISING ALL AROUND,
WALTZ, LIKE OTHER DICTATORS HAVE DONE AFTER HIM, THROWS A FIT AND GOES
DOWN, FIGHTING.
THIS NEW WORK BY THE AUTHOR OF LOLITA IS AS TRANSCENDENT AS HIS OTHER,
RECENT NOVEL, "THE EYE."
ALTHOUGH THERE ARE NO POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS IN "THE WALTZ INVENTION,"
STILL, WE FEEL THE STORY IS RELATED TO OUR SURVIVAL. WE MUST LEARN TO
RECOGNIZE A WALTZ, AND TO STOP HIM BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.
CRITICS HAVE POINTED OUT THAT MR. NABOKOV, AS A POET "GOES BEYOND THE
LIMITS OF HIS ART." IN "THE WALTZ INVENTION" MR. NABOKOV WENT BEYOND
THE LIMITS OF WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN IMAGINED, EVEN BY A POET, IN 1938,
ABOUT THE COMING FISSIONABLE AGE AND ITS DANGERS. MR. ROBERT PHELPS
WRITING ABOUT NABOKOV'S NOVEL "THE EYE," RECENTLY IN THE NEW YORK
HERALD TRIBUNE BOOK WEEK, SAID, VLADIMIR NABOKOV "IS LIVELIER THAN
CONRAD, DOES NOT DATE LIKE FITZGERALD, AND IS MORE ORIGINAL THAN
TURGENEV." AS FOR ORIGINALITY, "THE WALTZ INVENTION," LIKE LOLITA, IS
BOUND TO MAKE A LASTING IMPRESSION.
<bold>PHAEDRA PUBLISHERS, INC.</bold>
<bold>27 Washington Square N.</bold>
<bold>New York, N.Y."</bold></bigger></fontfamily>
The Russian "Lolita" blurb is also extremely queer. Its many times
repeated disbelief that Lolita is unavailable to the SOviet readers, is
curiously idiotic unless it be disingenuous, serving a certain purpose
outside the immediate. Its Russian is second-hand. Here is a very rough
literal translation:
"They say that this books is banned in the SOviet Union. Is this really
so? ANd if it is, then why so? What does this ban consist in [sic]? Is
the book enetered in some official proscription lists? Does such a list
exist?
"Lolita" is an extraordinary piece of fiction. It is a book about an
ardent loove of an adult man seduced by a 12 year old girl. The book
was blamed for its eroticism and even pornography. An absurd
accusation. It is about emotions deep and tragic.
If this book is really banned in the Soviet Union, then only the Soviet
reader stands to lose. A Literary masterpiece cannot lose its value
because it is banned in this or that country, just as Leonardo da
Vinci's painting will not lose its value if its reproduction cannot be
sold in a store. But the author cannot remain indifferent ot he fact
that his best work has been banned in the land where he was born --
once again, if it is true that the book is indeed banned there.
But perhaps it is not at all true, and all those talks about the ban
are nothing but a false rumor.
As Nabokov himself has often pointed out in his introductions to them,
his books [sic, an impossible pronominal antecedent in Russian] are
devoid of political underpinnings (including even his excellent play
"The Waltz Invention" written 30 years ago on the topic of a
fantastically powerful bomb); therefore, one is reduced to suppose that
the reason for the ban on Lolita lies in its erotic theme.
But let us leave conjectures alone. Instead, let us ask writers of
the SOviet Union to find out whether Loliat has been indeed banned
there, and if the book has truly been banned, whether one should appeal
to the authorities to lift the ban, even if this action should take
several years. It is imperative to take such action. We hope that
writers will be the first in the SOviet Union to acquire and read
Lolita; a considerable joy awaits them. [was the edition meant to be
distributed secretly among the dwellers of the Peredelkino "village of
rest and creativity"?]
We are also certain that the reading of this book will give pleasure to
everybody who can read in Russian. Lolita was, as is well-known, one of
the most -read books in America. A Russian writer [sic!] will be
curious to learn what they wrote of the book when it came out in
English [four quotations follow]
Voilà.
Gennady Barabtarlo
451 GCB University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211
573-882-9454 Fax 573-884-8456
The oddest by far of the dustjackets of all VN's books are those found
on the Phaedra (first) editions of the mid-60s, and this is not
because of the cover design (unambitious and fast) but rather because
of their inimitable flap-blurbs which quite really open and close the
book - for those,a t least, who happen to have the jackets preserved on
it. As Aldwinckle's copies do, I will give them here for the benefit,
merriment, and bewilderment of those who have no access to those quaint
texts. This is no usual commercial oatmeal; these are lyrical tracts
after a fashion. Both Phaedra's origin and fate are densely clouded,
and it has been suggested that it was a convenient shell for an
enterprise that was supposed to smuggle printed matter into the red
Territories. Two peculiar features seem to lend hand to this
supposition: first, an almost inexhaustible supply of Phaedra's
Russian Lolitas, hard and soft, was offered by a shady emigre bookshop
in New York 20 years later, at its original price; and secondly, EVERY
one of these editions gives a different address of the publusher:
Phaedra moved from 630 5th in 1965 (The Eye) to 220 E 42nd. in 1966
(Quartet) to 27 Washington Square same year (Waltz) to 156 5th in 1967
(Lolita). A very mobile house indeed.
Mark, by the way, that today is April 2nd, and so this is not a legpull
as someone might suspect. Here it goes:
The Eye:
"In Lolita, an inspector at the State line peers scrupulously [!] in
the car and says, 'Any honey?" as the seducer and the nymphet sit side
by side. In the course of the flight, a very special experience, the
hero-narrator undergoes a reversal of roles.
In The Eye, the protagonist changes roles through distorting mirrors;
at the end he is the center of two images, the indentity of another
man.
A master of prose, and a poet, critics say "authentic Nabokovian
English," [sic passim], Mr Nabokov has been compared to James Joyce, to
Proust, to Graham Greene, to Koestler; Mr Nathaniel Reicheck has
suggested that with Nabokov "the poet goes beyond the limits of his
art"; and Mr F.W.Dupee has written: "He has a mind too rich to be
impoverished by ideas." And rightly so, as Mr Nabokov says himself: "my
books are not only blessed by a total lack of [...] specular
predicament as his."
In short, Nabokov is something which has happened to American
literature; in fact, Lolita produced such an impact on American
publishers who first saw the manuscript, the novel was finally
published by a small house in Paris [sic, verbatim]; the real challenge
in Lolita appeared to be, at the time, too tremendous.
Mr Nabokov is the author of several novels, a first-rate memoir of his
Russian childhood and youth, a profound study of Gogol, learned work on
the subject of Lepidoptera, a trasnlation of Pushkin;s Eugene Onegin.
He has been able to perfect and English prose whose flexibility is
adapted to an astonishing range.
This new novel, The Eye, presents memorable characters, expatriates in
Berlin, from paupers to successful businessmen. As Mr nabokov says,
'Tracking down [..] ecstatic requital.".
<italic><fontfamily><param>Times</param><bigger><bigger><bigger>NABOKOV'S
QUARTET</bigger></bigger></bigger></fontfamily></italic><fontfamily><param>Times</param><bigger><bigger><bigger>
</bigger></bigger>THE FOUR STORIES IN THIS VOLUME, TWO PUBLISHED FOR
THE FIRST TIME IN THIS COURT-TRY, AND THE OTHER TWO, PREVIOUSLY
PUBLISHED IN THE NEW YORKER AND ESQUIRE, ADD LUSTER TO A SHARPLY
ILLUMINATED WRITER.
NABOKOV SHOWS A DISTINCTIVE ABILITY TO HANDLE DREAMS AS REALITY AND
REALITY AS A DREAM; IN THE STORY "AN AFFAIR OF HONOR," A PUNY SPIRIT, A
COWARD, MANAGES TO OBLITERATE REALITY IN FAVOR OF A CONVENIENT DREAM,
THAT THE OTHER MAN IN THE DUEL RAN AWAY, NOT BE.
THE STORY "VISIT TO A MUSEUM" IS SPUN LIKE HONEY FIBERS, PRESENTING THE
FAMILIAR WALLS OF A MUSEUM LIKE THE EPIDERMIS OF A LOVER.
IN "LIK," ONE OF THE LONGER STORIES, THE READER IS DELIGHTED TO MEET
ONCE AGAIN MEN OUT OF DOSTOYEVSKI, A VICTIM, WHO SEEMS TO HAVE THE SOUL
OF A GIRL, AND IS NOT A DUPE TODAY AS HE WAS IN HIS YOUTH, DANCING AWAY
FROM THE MAN WHO TORTURED HIM IN YEARS PAST, BUT ALSO DANCING CLOSE,
AND THE SADIST WHO NEEDS HIM MORE THAN HE NEEDS BREAD, IS DRIVEN TO
SUICIDE WHEN THE VICTIM FINALLY SHAKES LOOSE HIS OWN PART OF A SICK
SPIRIT.
"THE VANE SISTERS" ARE PAINTED ON THAT BY NOW VERY FAMILIAR BACKGROUND
</bigger>
<bold><italic>(Continued on back flop)</italic></bold>
<italic>(Continued from front flap)</italic>
<bigger>FOR AMERICAN READERS, THE SCENARIO OF LOLITA. IN TURN, ONE IS
REMINDED OF LOLITA'S MOTHER, OF LOLITA HERSELF; MR. NABOKOV IS JUST AS
ABLE TO DESCRIBE, WITH UTTER INTIMACY, THAT SPECIAL WAY GREAT WRITERS
HAVE TO DESCRIBE, A LAWN IN BERLIN, A LAWN IN UP STATE NEW YORK. BUT
THEN THE VANE SISTERS, AS MUCH AS LOLITA'S MOTHER, HAVE THAT PARTICULAR
AMERICAN FACE AND BODY, AND NO WOMAN IN BERLIN HAS THE SAME FACE, NO
RUSSIAN WOMAN IN THE NOVEL THE EYE, OR IN THE PLAY THE WALTZ INVENTION,
HAS THE SAME FACE. HOW MANY WRITERS ARE ABLE TO WORK IN MORE THAN ONE
COUNTRY?
FOR THE STUDENT OF THE SHORT STORY, THESE STORIES REPRESENT A PRICELESS
LESSON, OR RATHER, A NUMBER OF LESSONS, ALL VERY VIVID.
ON OPENING A VOLUME BY TOLSTOY, ONE OF COURSE IS SCENTED WITH GREATNESS
AT ONCE, BUT TO KNOW, UPON OPENING A BOOK BY VLADIMIR NABOKOV, THAT THE
AUTHOR IS WITH US, ALIVE, ONE IS SCENTED TWICE.
WE ARE VERY PROUD TO HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO PUBLISH THESE FOUR
STORIES.</bigger>
<bigger><bigger>$4.95
<bold>THE WALTZ INVENTION</bold>
by
Vladimir Nabokov
</bigger>MR. NABOKOV TELLS US IN "THE WALTZ INVENTION" THAT OUR
SALVATION TODAY RESTS ON A PERFECT UNDERSTANDING OF THE HUMAN HEART.
"THE WALTZ INVENTION," WRITTEN WHEN ONLY A HANDFUL OF SCIENTISTS WERE
CONCERNED WITH ATOMIC POSSIBILITIES, COULD HAVE BEEN READ AS A
PUZZLING, INCREDIBLE FANTASY IN THOSE DAYS, BUT OF COURSE TODAY A MAN
LIKE WALTZ IS AT THE CENTER OF OUR NIGHTMARES.
WE HAD BETTER HAVE A REALISTIC UNDERSTANDING ESPECIALLY OF A TYRANT'S
HEART IN OUR FISSIONABLE AGE, MR. NABOKOV SAYS.
SALVATOR WALTZ IS IN POSSESSION OF AN INFERNAL MACHINE. HE CAN OPERATE
IT AT WILL; AND THE MACHINE IS HIDDEN AWAY FROM ALL EYE IN THE
SYMBOLICAL COUNTRY OF WHICH WALTZ IS A CITIZEN.
WITH THE SAME INTRICATE LEVELS OF BRILLIANCY AS VLADIMIR NABOKOV'S
OTHER WORLD ACCLAIMED TALES, "THE WALTZ INVENTION", WRITTEN IN A PLAY
FORM IN 1938, IS A CLASSIC TRAGEDY AND A COMEDY.
WHEN WALTZ'S HEART IS FINALLY BARE, WE SHIVER. THE LESSON IS THAT
ABSOLUTE POWER IN THE HANDS OF ONE MAN, OR ONE NATION,
IS FOLLY.
WALTZ BECOMES PRIME MINISTER. HE BLOWS UP HIS NEIGHBORS.
BUT THE FRIGHTENING MESSAGE IS DELIVERED WITH A SHUTTLE TO 'COMEDY, AS
INDEED THE ENDING IS A HAPPY ONE, BECAUSE SALVATOR WALTZ IS NOT ALL
THERE.
JUST THE SAME, BEFORE WE CAN SIGH WITH RELIEF, WE SEE A MONSTER OF
TOTAL SELFISH-
(CONTINUED ON BACK FLAP)
(CONTINUED FROM FRONT FLAP)
NESS TRAMP ALL UNDERFOOT. WALTZ IS CLAMORING FOR WHORES, SERVICE AND
SERVITUDE. BUT ONE MAN WHO SAYS NO TO HIM, IN DEFENSE OF HIS DAUGHTERS
HONOR, MARKS HIS FALL.
WHEN WALTZ'S STAR IS ABOUT TO FADE BECAUSE OF THE UNFLINCHING COURAGE
OF ONE MAN, EVEN IN A WORLD WHERE THE SMOKE IS RISING ALL AROUND,
WALTZ, LIKE OTHER DICTATORS HAVE DONE AFTER HIM, THROWS A FIT AND GOES
DOWN, FIGHTING.
THIS NEW WORK BY THE AUTHOR OF LOLITA IS AS TRANSCENDENT AS HIS OTHER,
RECENT NOVEL, "THE EYE."
ALTHOUGH THERE ARE NO POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS IN "THE WALTZ INVENTION,"
STILL, WE FEEL THE STORY IS RELATED TO OUR SURVIVAL. WE MUST LEARN TO
RECOGNIZE A WALTZ, AND TO STOP HIM BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.
CRITICS HAVE POINTED OUT THAT MR. NABOKOV, AS A POET "GOES BEYOND THE
LIMITS OF HIS ART." IN "THE WALTZ INVENTION" MR. NABOKOV WENT BEYOND
THE LIMITS OF WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN IMAGINED, EVEN BY A POET, IN 1938,
ABOUT THE COMING FISSIONABLE AGE AND ITS DANGERS. MR. ROBERT PHELPS
WRITING ABOUT NABOKOV'S NOVEL "THE EYE," RECENTLY IN THE NEW YORK
HERALD TRIBUNE BOOK WEEK, SAID, VLADIMIR NABOKOV "IS LIVELIER THAN
CONRAD, DOES NOT DATE LIKE FITZGERALD, AND IS MORE ORIGINAL THAN
TURGENEV." AS FOR ORIGINALITY, "THE WALTZ INVENTION," LIKE LOLITA, IS
BOUND TO MAKE A LASTING IMPRESSION.
<bold>PHAEDRA PUBLISHERS, INC.</bold>
<bold>27 Washington Square N.</bold>
<bold>New York, N.Y."</bold></bigger></fontfamily>
The Russian "Lolita" blurb is also extremely queer. Its many times
repeated disbelief that Lolita is unavailable to the SOviet readers, is
curiously idiotic unless it be disingenuous, serving a certain purpose
outside the immediate. Its Russian is second-hand. Here is a very rough
literal translation:
"They say that this books is banned in the SOviet Union. Is this really
so? ANd if it is, then why so? What does this ban consist in [sic]? Is
the book enetered in some official proscription lists? Does such a list
exist?
"Lolita" is an extraordinary piece of fiction. It is a book about an
ardent loove of an adult man seduced by a 12 year old girl. The book
was blamed for its eroticism and even pornography. An absurd
accusation. It is about emotions deep and tragic.
If this book is really banned in the Soviet Union, then only the Soviet
reader stands to lose. A Literary masterpiece cannot lose its value
because it is banned in this or that country, just as Leonardo da
Vinci's painting will not lose its value if its reproduction cannot be
sold in a store. But the author cannot remain indifferent ot he fact
that his best work has been banned in the land where he was born --
once again, if it is true that the book is indeed banned there.
But perhaps it is not at all true, and all those talks about the ban
are nothing but a false rumor.
As Nabokov himself has often pointed out in his introductions to them,
his books [sic, an impossible pronominal antecedent in Russian] are
devoid of political underpinnings (including even his excellent play
"The Waltz Invention" written 30 years ago on the topic of a
fantastically powerful bomb); therefore, one is reduced to suppose that
the reason for the ban on Lolita lies in its erotic theme.
But let us leave conjectures alone. Instead, let us ask writers of
the SOviet Union to find out whether Loliat has been indeed banned
there, and if the book has truly been banned, whether one should appeal
to the authorities to lift the ban, even if this action should take
several years. It is imperative to take such action. We hope that
writers will be the first in the SOviet Union to acquire and read
Lolita; a considerable joy awaits them. [was the edition meant to be
distributed secretly among the dwellers of the Peredelkino "village of
rest and creativity"?]
We are also certain that the reading of this book will give pleasure to
everybody who can read in Russian. Lolita was, as is well-known, one of
the most -read books in America. A Russian writer [sic!] will be
curious to learn what they wrote of the book when it came out in
English [four quotations follow]
Voilà.
Gennady Barabtarlo
451 GCB University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211
573-882-9454 Fax 573-884-8456