Table Of ContentSTUDIES IN RUSSIAN AND SLAVIC
LITERATURES, CULTURES AND
HISTORY
Series Editor: Lazar Fleishman
(Stanford Universtity)
keys to
the gift
A Guide to
Yuri Leving
Nabokov’s Novel
Boston
2011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Copyright © 2011 Academic Studies Press
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-934843-11-6 (hardback)
ISBN 978-1-934843-97-0 (paperback)
Cover design: Andrey Bashkin
The companion website for this book is www.keystogift.com
Published by Academic Studies Press in 2011
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To Ella,
Lola and Leva (Arieh Levi),
for their love and patience
Contents
How to Use This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Note on Spellings of Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx
The Gift: A Biography of the Novel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
Chapter One
COMPOSITION AND PUBLICATION
Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The Manuscript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The Unwritten Part Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The History of Publication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
The Market Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Towards the Variorum Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Chapter Two
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Imperial Russia and the Golden Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Aesthetic Theories and Literary Criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
The Plot of What to Do? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
St. Petersburg: Turn of the Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Berlin: The Russian Émigré Community Between the Two World Wars . . 113
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
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Chapter Th ree
STRUCTURE
Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Development of Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
Chapter Four
STYLE
Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Points of View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Allusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Intertextuality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Chapter Five
COMMENTARY
The Gift as Hypertext: Digital Databases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
What Constitutes a Footnote? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Playing with Readers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
Types of Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Visual Aids to Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
The Opening Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Author’s Name, Dedication, Epigraph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Close Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
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Chapter Six
ENGLISH TRANSLATION
“I Am Still Looking For Somebody . . . ” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
A Sheer Happenstance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
Passing the Test . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Collaboration by Correspondence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380
Some General Principles of Translating The Gift . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
Challenges in Translating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Nabokov’s Revisions of Scammell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
What Had To Be Compromised? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Chapter Seven
CRITICAL RECEPTION
Contemporary Critics: 1937–38 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Contemporary Critics: 1938–56 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Contemporary Critics: 1962–77 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Critical Reception: 1977–2000s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480
Appendixes
Appendix I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
Appendix II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503
Appendix III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
Appendix IV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518
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