S AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-ONE , Brian Boyd PRAISE FOR STALKING NABOKOV T wrote a thesis on Vladimir Nabokov that the famous A author called “brilliant.” After gaining exclusive “This book is a real treasure. It represents a considerable range of work by the author of access to the writer’s archives, he wrote a two-part, one of the great biographies of the late twentieth century, who is also a lucid and consis- L award-winning biography, Vladimir Nabokov: The Rus- tently engaged and engaging critic. A remarkable read—all readers and scholars of Vladi- sian Years (1990) and Vladimir Nabokov: The American mir Nabokov will need this book.” K —MICHAEL WOOD, Princeton University Years (1991). This collection features essays written by Boyd since completing the biography, incorporat- “Brian Boyd is, without question, the foremost single authority on Vladimir Nabokov’s life I ing material he gleaned from his research as well as and art and has been generally considered such ever since the publication of his magiste- N rial two-volume critical biography, Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years and Vladimir Nabo- new discoveries and formulations. S T A L K I N G kov: The American Years. Not only is anything that Boyd writes about Nabokov significant, G BRIAN BOYD is University Distinguished Profes- but his study of Nabokov is remarkably dynamic—there’s just no other word for it. Stalking Boyd confronts Nabokov’s life, career, and legacy; his sor of English at the University of Auckland. His work Nabokov tells a fascinating story of continual intellectual rediscovery and of Boyd’s own art, science, and thought; his subtle humor and puzzle- development as reader, student, literary sleuth, biographer, critic, colleague, collaborator, on American, Brazilian, English, Greek, Irish, New like storytelling; his complex psychological portraits; N mentor, and, best of all, rereader.” Zealand, and Russian literature, from epics to com- and his inheritance from, reworking of, and affinities ics, has appeared in seventeen languages and has —SUSAN ELIZABETH SWEENEY, College of the Holy Cross, president of the International Vladimir with Shakespeare, Pushkin, Tolstoy, and Machado de Nabokov Society and co-moderator of the Vladimir Nabokov Electronic Forum (NABOKV-L) A won awards on four continents. He is the author of Assis. Boyd offers new ways of reading Nabokov’s best Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years and Vladimir B N A B O K O V English-language works: Lolita, Pale Fire, Ada, and the PRAISE FOR BRIAN BOYD Nabokov: The American Years, books on Pale Fire unparalleled autobiography, Speak, Memory, and he and Ada, and the enormous AdaOnline. He has edited O discloses otherwise unknown information about the “At the end of the twentieth century, Vladimir Nabokov was judged as one of the ten greatest Nabokov’s English fiction, autobiography, butterfly author’s world. Sharing his personal reflections, Boyd writers in the world of that century. And I can confirm that the two best works ever written writings, and verse translations and is now editing K recounts the adventures, hardships, and revelations on Nabokov—anywhere in the world—are Brian Boyd’s two-volume account of Nabokov’s a collection of the author’s letters to his wife. Also of researching Nabokov’s biography and his unusual life and work. In these volumes, the specifics of Nabokov’s life are thorough and precisely known for his evolutionary and cognitive work, he is correct, and the description, evaluation, and interpretation of all of Nabokov’s writings re- O finds in the archives, including materials still awaiting the author of On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cog- main to this day the finest ever written. All Nabokov scholars must use Boyd’s work and in- publication. The first to focus on Nabokov’s metaphys- BRIAN BOYD nition, and Fiction and the forthcoming Why Lyrics terpretations as a basis in order to go forward from any other perspective. So without ques- V ics, Boyd cautions against their being used as the key Last: Evolution, Cognition, and Shakespeare’s Son- tion, he is the greatest Nabokov scholar in the world.” to unlock all of the author’s secrets, showing instead nets and is coeditor of Evolution, Literature, and Film: —STEPHEN JAN PARKER, University of Kansas, founding editor of The Nabokovian BRIAN the many other rooms in Nabokov’s castle of fiction and author of Understanding Vladimir Nabokov A Reader. He is currently working on a biography of that need exploring, such as his humor, narrative BOYD the philosopher Karl Popper. invention, and psychological insight into characters ISBN: 978-0-231-15856-5 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS / NEW YORK and readers alike. Appreciating Nabokov as novelist, CUP.COLUMBIA.EDU memoirist, poet, translator, scientist, and individual, 9 780231 158565 JACKET DESIGN BY JENNIFER HEUER PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. Boyd helps us understand more than ever the author’s Cover photo ”Vladimir Nabokov Catching a Butterfly” by Carl Mydans COLUMBIA multifaceted genius. Stalking Nabokov 01_boyd15856_fm.indd 1 8/12/11 11:44 AM 01_boyd15856_fm.indd 2 8/12/11 11:44 AM Stalking Nabokov s e l e c te d e s s ays Brian Boyd Columbia University Press New York 01_boyd15856_fm.indd 3 8/12/11 11:44 AM Columbia University Press Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex Copyright © 2011 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Boyd, Brian, 1952– Stalking Nabokov : selected essays / Brian Boyd. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-231-15856-5 (cloth : acid-free paper) ISBN 978-0-231-53029-3 (e-book) 1. Nabokov, Vladimar Vladimirovich, 1899–1977— Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PG3476.N3Z587 2011 813'.54—dc22 2011008348 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. This book is printed on paper with recycled content. Printed in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 01_boyd15856_fm.indd 4 8/12/11 11:44 AM To Bronwen and to my friends in the Nabokov world 01_boyd15856_fm.indd 5 8/12/11 11:44 AM 01_boyd15856_fm.indd 6 8/12/11 11:44 AM CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix List of Abbreviations xi Introduction xiii Nabokov: The Writer’s Life and the Life Writer 1. A Centennial Toast (1999) 3 2. A Biographer’s Life (2001) 8 3. Who Is “My Nabokov”? (2007) 19 Nabokov’s Manuscripts and Books 4. The Nabokov Biography and the Nabokov Archive (1992) 25 5. From the Nabokov Archive: Nabokov’s Literary Legacy (2009) 40 Nabokov’s Metaphysics 6. Retrospects and Prospects (2001) 57 7. Nabokov’s Afterlife (2002) 66 Nabokov’s Butterflies 8. Nabokov, Literature, Lepidoptera (2000) 73 9. Netting Nabokov: Review of Dieter E. Zimmer, A Guide to Nabokov’s Butterflies and Moths, 2001 (2001) 100 Nabokov as Psychologist 10. The Psychological Work of Fictional Play (2010) 109 01_boyd15856_fm.indd 7 8/12/11 11:44 AM Nabokov and the Origins and Ends of Stories 11. Stacks of Stories, Stories of Stacks (2010) 123 Nabokov as Writer 12. Nabokov’s Humor (1996) 145 13. Nabokov as Storyteller (2002) 157 14. Nabokov’s Transition from Russian to English: Repudiation or Evolution? (2007) 176 Nabokov and Others 15. Nabokov, Pushkin, Shakespeare: Genius, Generosity, and Gratitude in The Gift and Pale Fire (1999) 203 16. Nabokov as Verse Translator: Introduction to Verses and Versions (2008) 214 17. Tolstoy and Nabokov (1993) 229 18. Nabokov and Machado de Assis (2009) 248 Nabokov Works 19. Speak, Memory: The Life and the Art (1990) 265 20. S peak, Memory: Nabokov, Mother, and Lovers: The Weave of the Magic Carpet (1999) 276 21. Lolita: Scene and Unseen (2006) 288 22. Even Homais Nods: Nabokov’s Fallibility; Or, How to Revise Lolita (1995) 297 23. Literature, Pattern, Lolita; Or, Art, Literature, Science (2008) 320 24. “Pale Fire”: Poem and Pattern (2010) 336 25. Ada: The Bog and the Garden; Or, Straw, Fluff, and Peat: Sources and Places in Ada (2004) 360 26. A Book Burner Recants: The Original of Laura (2010) 385 Notes 397 Bibliography 423 Index 437 viii CONTENTS 01_boyd15856_fm.indd 8 8/12/11 11:44 AM ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the late Vladimir Nabokov for giving readers, and espe- cially this reader, such pleasure, the late Véra Nabokov for inviting me to sort out her husband’s archives and for trusting me enough to tolerate my researching his biography; and Dmitri Nabokov and the late Elena Sikorski for their support, hospitality, and friendship, and Dmitri also for permis- sion to quote all unpublished Nabokov material. I would like to thank the following writers, editors, publishers, colleagues, students, and friends for inviting me to contribute to conferences, journals, books, talks, or discussions, or for ideas or feedback, or for giving me per- mission to reproduce the material that follows: Martin Amis, Harold Augen- braum (then of Mercantile Library of New York), André Bernard (then of Harcourt), Marijeta Bozovic (then of Ulbandus), Matthew Brillinger, Lisa Browar (then of the New York Public Library), Patricia Carr Brückmann (Trinity College, University of Toronto), Linda Corman (Trinity College Library, University of Toronto), Mo Cohen (Gingko Press), Julian Connolly, Peter Craven (then of Scripsi), Galya Diment, Alexander Dolinin, Kristin Eliasberg (then of PEN Center, New York), George Gibian, Jane Grayson (then of SEES, University of London), R. S. Gwynn, Jean Holabird, Don Bar- ton Johnson (including as editor of Nabokov Studies), Kurt Johnson, Frederic R. Karl (Bibliography and Source Studies), Zoran Kuzmanovich (including as editor of Nabokov Studies), Shoko Miura (Nabokov Society of Japan), Akiko Nakata (Nabokov Society of Japan), Fred Neubauer (Einhard Foundation), Will Norman, Mitsuyoshi Numano (Nabokov Society of Japan), Stephen Jan Parker (including as editor of The Nabokovian), Rodney Phillips (then of the New York Public Library), Robert Michael Pyle, Stanley J. Rabinowitz, Stan- islas Shvabrin, Claudio Soares, Vadim Stark (then of the Institute of Russian Literature and Art, St. Petersburg), Mio Suda (Gunzo), Anthony Uhlmann 01_boyd15856_fm.indd 9 8/12/11 11:44 AM