pontalba

"They returned with data, with calculations, and with charts. They came carrying specimens of minerals and plants. Both also returned with people, living human specimens of the diversity of mankind." Peoples and Empires by Anthony Pagden (just came by DHL today!)

The Virginia series is the "Mrs. Murphy" one. I have some of them, but like Joe Grey better really, that cat has, er, testoserone! Hadn't heard of the last one though.

I love Joe Grey and Dulcie!

Great muggle! Some people bog down in that chapter, but he made it so interesting and funny with the reminiscences. "Everything is water..."

The reviews were contradictory, some claiming the book did not live up to it's title a bit. But honestly, the only reason I was interested in the butterfly book was because of Nabokov himself.

Oh Boy! Sounds marvelous! Thought you'd be interested in this link.... http://www.amazon.com/Nabokovs-Blues-Scientific-Odyssey-Literary/dp/0071373306/sr=1-1/qid=1160073741/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-7799685-9162534?ie=UTF8&s=books Oh! Just saw the picture! Gorgeous!

I just ordered The Thirteenth Tale I hope you liked it.

Sounds great! Both that you'll be back, and the Museum.

Oh! Thanks for the link. The Woolworth's I remember was smaller scale than that, but it may have been the predesessor to it. They have all evolved more or less along the same track. The products at for example Wal-Mart over here and K-Mart have substantially improved in the last 15 years or so. http://www.walmart.com/ Same difference I expect.

muggle, I am an only child, it must be wonderful to have sibling memories like that.

I remember something along those lines, but can't put my eyes on it yet. But a couple of things stand out in that chapter that bring out VN's personality perfectly. One being the bit on p.73 regarding nostalgia...

And if their parents are the insular sort, the child never realizes the differences, and all sorts of bigotry stems from that tunnel vision generation after generation. Nabokov was as far as I can tell an extremely....how to put it...broad minded doesn't exactly fit, but in the same ballpark. He was not prejudiced against anything but prejudice itself, or tyranny of any sort.

Yes! He did tend to play it close to the vest and not elaborate on his own....beliefs. Just as in the way he is so open about his life, but otoh closed-mouthed as far as the really private moments go. But this coded opening into his true thoughts is a summary. I just didn't think of it in that way before. And yes, the bit about walking between his parents, and realizing that time was actually a living thing so to speak was telling. It's funny but children take their surroundings so for granted. But I remember my father building onto our house when I was 5 or 6 and how shocked, but interested I was in the walls actually being something other than solid blanks. They had more wood, wires and all sorts of interesting components hidden. A bit like life.

Oh, and the swan simply made me want to cry!

Why do you say he dislikes Switzerland? I must have missed something along the line. You know he lived the last 16 (ish) years of his life in Switzerland. I thought he was unhappy about the way Mademoiselle and the other governesses ended up beautifying or idealizing a past that for most of them (Mademoiselle at least) was anything but idealistic. Her unfortunate partial deafness and her behaviour at the dinner table and what almost seemed like a persecution complex...especially with Lenski made her miserable. She seemed to remember things far differently than VN did. The bit about her remembering his little confidences was more than likely wishful thinking, as he in the aside says "Never!". And frankly I cannot imagine that she was correct in that. Even as a child that was not in his nature.

Nabokov's love of nature comes through in all of his books, but he allows himself full rein in Speak, Memory, showing even more his own vunerability. His mother taught him the value of remembering his surroundings.... (underlining mine) What a wonderful legacy his mother made for him. Unreal estate. Marvelous. She had to sense what was coming, the terrible wrench that would take place, so she gave her son the things that really mattered. Memories. You know a friend of our family was a concentration camp survivor, and he said that the one thing the guards could not take from the prisoners was their thoughts. And memories fit right into that scheme of things. Anyhow I started this post with the intention of talking about nature, and VN's love of same. In all of his books he describes the flowering shrubs and trees and in general the natural surroundings in his stories so beautifully that most of the time I am impelled to find a picture of whatever he is talking about.

I wish I could take credit for it, but I can't, but I also can't remember where I read it. I have er, several , yeah, lets say several research tools for Nabokov. It just struck me as the most apt description of his writing.

LOL Shows the exploring spirit! Yes! I agree, I'd have to know! Just Nabokov's description of summer dusk! or Summer soomerki. There is no skimming or skating through a Nabokov...each word must be savored. Other authors may be "twisty" or layered to an extent, but the painterly manner of VN's writing is a true feast.

Even though I ended up enjoying at least the first in the Trilogy, I am not 100% sure I will read more of Auster. I think the most likely candidate is the one...I think something about Illusions...don't have the name in front of me. He is a twisty sort of author, and one probably has to be "in the mood" for him.

In fact I must admit to 19 or 20 books sitting right here to my left that are all started........maybe 21(ish) Just put it on your list. You won't be sorry.

We don't speak of TBR lists around here.....it is too embarrasing. :D

I can't place where it is right now, but there is a similar scene with his mother when they are in St. Petersburg, and she is shopping for something for him. Oh! I just found it...p.37, when he was ill, he pictured her buying a pencil, but in his mind it was an ordinary pencil, when it was the four foot pencil in the window of Treumann's. Now that was a neat trick.....

And the "Confessions of a synesthete" that are so beautifully described. What a wonderful gift! Obviously it runs in the family as his mother and son at least have it, plus Vera his wife does too. You know dogmatix, after this you must read Vera by Stacy Schiff, it is Vera's bio, but Vladimir is always with her, so it's the same difference, but a different perspective. Plus of course, it continues to his death and afterward as Vera outlived him by 15 years.

Also on p. 29 toward the bottom Nabokov speaks of the joy with which the village greeted his father when he returned home from his 3 month incarceration. I found a picture of the bluebottles he speaks of that were part of the decorations that lined the path from the railway station to home. They were his father's favorite flowers.