And so, the next set of draft pages for the revised and updated bibliography: The Original of Laura, Nabokov’s final piece of writing, his uncompleted novel. Before he died in 1977 he told his wife that if he couldn’t finish it he wanted her to destroy it. She wasn’t able to before she died in 1991. Nor was his son, Dmitri who finally, in 2008 after much thought, announced that he would publish it. It was issued simultaneously in the U.S. by Knopf and in Britain by Penguin in November 2009 to much fanfare. But the novel’s semi-formed state left many critics bewildered. They gave the book generally poor reviews. It did not appear in the 1986 bibliography.
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Fluttering along to the next set of draft pages for the revised and updated bibliography: Pale Fire, Nabokov’s novel in the apparatus of a poem and its commentary. For many years he had been playing with the elements that became the novel. But it didn’t spring into life until the fall of 1960 and within a year he had finished it. Pale Fire was published by Putnam’s on 7-Apr-1962. It has since gone through 14 further editions including two aimed at collectors. It is A35 in the 1986 bibliography.
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Attacking the next set of draft pages for the revised and updated bibliography: Pnin, Nabokov’s fourth novel in English which he began in the late spring of 1953. As he wrote what became seven chapters over the next two years, he submitted them to The New Yorker. The magazine accepted four of them. Because the completed book was less than two-hundred pages long, Nabokov had some trouble finding a publisher for it. Finally Doubleday accepted it and it came out on 7-Mar-1957 to positive reviews and a quick second printing. Since then, it has been through ten further editions in America and Britain. It is A30 in the 1986 bibliography.
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Charging on to the next set of draft pages for the revised and updated bibliography: The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. Begun in Paris in December 1938 before he and his family steamed to America, this was Nabokov’s initial foray into long-form creativity in English. While he was still in Europe, he couldn’t find a publisher for the new novel in England or the U.S. Only when he reached New York was he able, with the help of friends, to place it with the new firm, New Directions. It is A21 in the 1986 bibliography.
The first printing of 1941 was issued in 1941 and 1945 in a variety of bindings and coverings. The details of the two issues and the four variants of the second issue are described.
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Not so dramatically moving along with the next set of draft pages for the revised and updated bibliography: Собрание сочинений: III [Sobranie sochineniĭ: III / Collected works: III] was the third volume in a projected set of Nabokov’s complete Russian works that Ardis began issuing in 1988 or 1989. This volume is an A-item because it included Волшебник [Volshebnik / The enchanter], its first book appearance in its original Russian form. It also included a translation into Russian of Nabokov’s English foreword to The Eye, the novel Соглядатай [Sogliadataĭ / The eye], and a dozen stories. The Enchanter had been previously published in Dmitri Nabokov’s English translation in 1986. The volume did not appear in the 1986 bibliography.
Tags: novel, Russian, Russian editions
Carrying on to the next set of draft pages for the revised and updated bibliography: Bend Sinister, Nabokov’s second novel in English and the first he wrote in America. Henry Holt published it in 1947. It has gone through ten further editions, most notably the Time Reading Program in 1964 that first included Nabokov’s introduction. It is A24 in the 1986 bibliography.
Tags: novel
Gliding along to the next set of draft pages for the revised and updated bibliography: Отчаяние [Otchaianie / Despair] was Nabokov’s seventh novel in Russian. He wrote it in 1932 but it wasn’t published as a book until 1936 by Petropolis in Berlin. It had been serialized in Современные записки [Sovremennye zapiski / Contemporary annals], in Feb–Oct 1934 (issues 44–46). Nabokov translated it into English twice, first for the John Long imprint of Hutchinson in London in 1937 and then for Putnam’s in 1966 in New York. It is A15 in the 1986 bibliography.
Making headway with the next set of draft pages for the revised and updated bibliography: Подвиг [Podvig / Glory] was Nabokov’s fifth novel in Russian. He wrote it in 1930 and the book was published in book form towards the end of 1932 by Sovremennye Zapiski. Excerpts had previously appeared eight times in various émigré newspapers in 1931 and 1932 and in its entirety in the literary journal Современные записки [Sovremennye zapiski / Contemporary annals] in 1931. The English translation, Glory, was the last of his novels that Nabokov translated. He said that the Russian title, “Podvig”, translates literally as “gallant feat” or “high deed”. But for the English language version, he preferred the evocative “Glory”. It was published by McGraw-Hill in 1971. It is A13 in the 1986 bibliography.
Progressing with the next set of draft pages for the revised and updated bibliography: Приглашение на казнь [[Priglashenie na kazn’/Invitation to a Beheading]] was Nabokov’s penultimate novel in Russian. He temporarily dropped work on Dar and began writing Priglashenie na kazn’ in Berlin in June 1934. He worked very quickly, finishing it by the end of the year. It was serialized in Sovremennye Zapiski from June 1935 to March 1936 (Nos. 58–60) and published in book form by Dom Knigi in Paris in November 1938. The English translation, Invitation to a Beheading, was published by Putnam’s in 1959. It is A16 in the 1986 bibliography.
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