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Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by J.M.W. TurnerPicture source I had written a long post on Lord Byron’s influence on Pushkin, as well as Pushkin creating something beyond Byron. As I was re-reading it, I realized only people working on graduate degrees related to this would care. Hell, even I didn’t care by the time I reached […]
Ilya Repin’s painting “Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin recites his poem before Gavrila Derzhavin during the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum exam on January 8th, 1815” Picture sourceAlexander Pushkin was a member of the first Imperial Lyceum founded by Alexander I. (Several of his classmates would lead the Decembrist uprising.) The painting above is by Ilya Efimovich Repin. A […]
I’m not really sure. But here’s an article I enjoyed: Steeped in Shakespeare “Shakespeare’s plays were ubiquitous in antebellum America. They inhabited the schoolbooks, including Scott’s Lessons in Elocution, which Lincoln read as a boy. Dozens of editions circulated through the states and territories. The plays visited rural and urban stages in scenes and declamatory […]
Never one to do things in a consistent order (or even an order that even makes sense), I wanted to write about this movie before discussing the book. So I apologize in advance for referring to the work without directly addressing it first. For those unfamiliar with Eugene Onegin, here is a brief synopsis shamelessly […]
Alexander Pushkin by Vasily Tropinin (1827) Picture sourceI only know a little bit about Alexander Pushkin but find him a fascinating character. My limited introduction to him so far has been the movie Amadeus, which took his play “Mozart and Salieri” as a starting point. Eugene Onegin will obviously suffer since I am dealing with […]
Notes written by Nabokov about finishing Lolita“I have only words to play with!” That one quote continues to stick with me as my favorite line of the book as well as representative of so much within it. In the same declaration, Humbert Humbert bemoans the fact that he does not have Lolita to “play with,” […]
Picture source at FilmPosters.com Unfortunately I had to watch the movie in fits and starts over several days, but hopefully I won’t bungle any of the facts of the movie. There is a good overview and recap of the film at American Movie Classic’s filmsite.org. Two Views of Lolita, both of which are higher on […]
A geographical scrutiny of Vladimir Nabokov’s novel Lolitaby Dieter E. ZimmerPicture source Part Two was somewhat of a disappointment to me, which I’ll try to explain as I go along. The wordplay and parodies continue, but some contradictions (or at it seems to me) ultimately undermine the book. The seductive language continues, lulling the reader […]
This cartoon originally appeared in The New York Times Book Review on September 14, 1958. The caption reads, “Go get your own copy of ‘Lolita.’” Picture source The book developed slowly, with many interruptions and asides. It had taken me some forty years to invent Russia and Western Europe, and now I was faced by […]
This is the first book covered in the online Shakespeare course I joined. Shapiro’s work goes into detail on Shakespeare’s achievements in 1599 (a remarkable output–Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and the first draft of Hamlet ), his business dealings, and the national scene within which he worked. The approach of […]
The vacant ice looked tired, though it shouldn’t have. They told him it had been put down only a few minutes ago following a basketball game, and after the hockey match it would be taken up again to make room for something else. But it looked not expectant but resigned, like the mirror simulating ice […]
Picture source So Humbert the Cubus schemed and dreamed—and the red sun of desire and decision (the two things that create a live world) rose higher and higher, while upon a succession of balconies a succession of libertines, sparkling glass in hand, toasted the bliss of past and future nights. Then, figuratively speaking, I shattered […]
So I’m behind in everything I wanted to do so far this year, and I’m probably going to sign up for more. I ran across an online course on Shakespeare being put together which I thought I would explore. It will be the first time it’s offered and while it sounds like it may have […]
I apologize for the lack of posting but I haven’t had a chance to read anything in the past month, much less write about it. Home and work are taking up all my time, with no time for anything else. Not to mention lots of turbulence at work (today’s fun is preparing a separation agreement […]
Vladimir Nabokov and his wife, Véra, 1966 Picture source Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. (The opening lines of Lolita) A note on […]
The Olympia Press’ cover of Lolita Picture source There are many informative sites dedicated to Nabokov and Lolita, but unfortunately many of the links I tried at these sites no longer exist. Hopefully the following links will stick around for a while. Vladimir Nabokov Wikipedia entry for Vladimir Nabokov The gateway to an extended interview […]
William Faulkner Picture source at American Memory from The Library of CongressA summary of the postings related to As I Lay Dying. It definitely is in the top three of my favorite Faulkner novels, and I’m looking forward to reading Light in August later this year…it was my favorite my first time through some of […]
Illustration by Nathan Olsen Picture source at nateomedia.com Sometimes I aint so sho who’s got ere a right to say when a man is crazy and when he aint. Sometimes I think it aint none of us pure crazy and aint none of us pure sane until the balance of us talks him that-a-way. It’s […]
These sections cover from Addie’s funeral to the disastrous river crossing. The dark, morbid humor really shines in these sections. The actions or descriptions are sickly funny by themselves, such as the mosquito netting to cover the auger holes in Addie’s face or the mules’ stiff legs turning repeatedly over in the river. What makes […]
A reproduction of the first manuscript page of As I Lay Dying I finally have a few moments (and an internet connection) to write something on the first third of As I Lay Dying and I’m at a loss on how to approach it. The first thing most analyses note on the book is the […]