Insofar as it contains meaty selections from what I take to be Nabokov’s supreme act (and work) of literary criticism (not counting his voluminous notes on his translation of Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin, which I haven’t read) –- namely, his eccentric and indelible Nikolai Gogol, first published by New Directions in 1944 -– it can arguably be deemed an improvement, even over his exhilarating and enlightening lectures on Flaubert and Kafka in the first volume.īut in most other respects, Lectures on Russian Literature is a distinct letdown. Issued in a uniform edition at the same price, only 50-odd pages shorter -– the jacket Indian-red in contrast to last year’s sky-blue –- the book can be considered a worthy successor. Is Volume II a worthy successor, an arguable improvement, or a distinct letdown? Explain. J.R.Ĭompare the book under examination to Nabokov’s Lectures on Literature, reviewed in these pages last November. Incidentally, for those who might be interested, my earlier review of Nabokov’s Lectures on Literature for Soho News can be accessed here. Ironically, this review was originally copyedited rather clumsily, so I’ve tried to restore some of its original logic and meaning.
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