----- Original Message -----
 
From: Beau Shaw
To: Nabokov listserv
Sent: Friday, March 21, 2003 7:42 PM
Subject: Nabokov/German literature

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone knew about Nabokov's opinions about German literary culture--particularly in the century preceding his own. Was he familiar with Goethe, Schilling, Lessing, Nietzsche? Did he ever write about contemporary/past German authors?
Thanks very much. Beau Shaw
 
----------------------------------------------------
 
EDNOTE. I'm sure others will provide fuller information here, but, in brief, VN's opinion of German literary culture was quite low. Nonetheless, he translated a fragment from Goethe's "Faust" into Russian and alludes to many German writers in his work including the now forgotten Leonardt Frank whose scandalous 1920's novel of toney sibling incest  _Bruder und Schwester_ may have left its traces in ADA.