Chekhov's Mistress

If you’re going to be addicted to Nabokov you might as well get some bargains on his books

by Bud Parr

Labyrinth Sale Annex

If you’ve read this site lately, you know that I’ve been on a Nabokov bend. I read the Annotated Lolita, Speak, Memory, much of Strong Opinion’s, casebook essays on Lolita, and I had already read many of V.N.’s short stories and lectures on literature. My goal by largely reading all that non-fiction instead of just ripping through the novels was to allow myself to “get inside the mind” of V.N., to the extent that’s possible, so that I could bring at least a modicum of intellect to reading the works of this odd and brilliant man.



Where does it end? Just as I thought I was done with the non-fiction, I see a post at Tingle Alley about Michael Wood’s collection of essays, The Magician’s Doubts, which was recommended by Anthony Lane and Dan Green. Although I was critical of the book based on her post (it was late, I was tired), I decided it was a must have on my Nabokov travels.



Now I’m getting to the bargain part: Labyrinth Books has a sale annex available on-line where new (as in unused) books are often priced between $3.98 and $6.98. The trick is that their selection is not necessarily mainstream, unless of course you are bookish enough that you read or write a literary journal like this one. So I bought Magician’s Doubts for $6.98 and Nikolai Gogol, a book of criticism by V.N. for $4.98. Both books were priced well below what they sell for on Amazon or elsewhere.



That’s it. Now it’s time to start chipping away at everything the man ever wrote as I am doing with Faulkner and a few others. It keeps me alive.





Read widely, think well, and write often.

posted September 02, 2004

comments

Wow Bud, thanks for the tip on the Nabokov criticism. These sound like some pretty good leads.

BTW, if you want to read Nabokov’s short stories, Vintage has a book which I believe is fairly complete (it’s huge). I think it is one of the lesser known Vintage-Nabokov books, so I’m going to throw this out there in case you haven’t seen it yet.

    – Scott (09/02  at  01:19 PM)


Thanks Scott - I have the book you are talking about and it is indeed comprehensive. I’ve read all of his stories that were originally written in English, a fairly arbitrary selection, and some of the earlier ones too. They are all quite good and some great. The Vane Sisters was my favorite, but you have to read the author’s note afterward to fully appreciate it.

    – Chekhov's Mistress (09/02  at  01:58 PM)


In one year in the late 70s, I read all the novels published till then (which left out Transparent Things, and another one, which I caught up on). An amazing experience. Brian Boyd’s huge two-volume biography from 8 or 10 years ago is fantastic stuff, too, as good a literary biography as I’ve ever read.

    – Steve Michel (09/02  at  05:32 PM)


Bud, I’m glad to hear that you got the Wood. I’ll look forward to hearing what you think of it. I may just scare up the relevant passage in Lane & post it over at T.A.

    – CAAF (09/03  at  03:49 PM)


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