Subject: Re: [NABOKV-L] greatest novel of all is lost out there ...
From: "Rodney Welch" <[email-masked]>
To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 30 Jul 2006 19:13:46 -0400

The New Straits review says that "According to legend, Nabokov was so 
distraught after finishing Lolita, he almost burned it."

Is this so? All I ever heard was that while writing "Lolita" he became 
so discouraged with the outcome that he almost burned it, and that Vera 
stopped him. That's a purely aesthetic matter, though, not one of 
guilt; once he mastered the story, VN was quite pleased with his 
creation.

The poem cited was news to me, but it sounds very tongue-in-cheek.

Is it possible the reviewer conflated Nabokov's story with that of 
Gogol, who was indeed so distraught over the second half of "Dead 
Souls" that he committed it to the flames?

Rodney Welch
Columbia, SC

On Saturday, July 29, 2006, at 09:53  PM, Mary Krimmel wrote:

> Time and again, we read that "'LOLITA, light of my life, fire of my 
> loins,' is the famous first line of Vladimir Nabokovís novel Lolita". 
> But it isn't! It is the first line of Humbert's confession. The first 
> line of VN's novel is "'Lolita, or the Confession of a White Widowed 
> Male,' such were the two titles..."
>
>      Hard as it may be for some reviewers (here, Johan Jaaffar) and 
> others to distinguish between the two artists, it is often, if not 
> always, important, isn't it?
>
> Mary Krimmel
>
>
> At 09:56 AM 7/29/06,  Sandy Klein sent an interesting review of  
> Stuart Kellyís The Book of Lost Books: An Incomplete History of All 
> Great Books You will Never Read, from New Straits Times
>
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