Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Note on Abbreviations and References
- 1 Nabokov and the Two Sister Arts
- 2 The ‘Mad Pursuit’ in Laughter in the Dark
- 3 The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. Its Colours and Painting
- 4 Pnin and the History of Art
- 5 Lolita and Aubrey Beardsley
- 6 Pale Fire Zemblematically
- 7 Leonardo and ‘Spring in Fialta’
- 8 A Shimmer of Exact Details: Ada’s Art Gallery
- 9 Ada and Bosch
- Appendix I Passages in Nabokov’s Novels, Stories or Autobiography Referring or Alluding to Paintings
- Appendix II Painters Mentioned or Obviously Referred to in Nabokov’s Works
- Notes
- Bibliography
- List of Illustrations and Acknowledgements
- Corresponding Pages in the Volumes Published by Vintage International and Penguin Books
- Index of Authors
- Index of Artists
- Plate Section
Foreword
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 January 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Note on Abbreviations and References
- 1 Nabokov and the Two Sister Arts
- 2 The ‘Mad Pursuit’ in Laughter in the Dark
- 3 The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. Its Colours and Painting
- 4 Pnin and the History of Art
- 5 Lolita and Aubrey Beardsley
- 6 Pale Fire Zemblematically
- 7 Leonardo and ‘Spring in Fialta’
- 8 A Shimmer of Exact Details: Ada’s Art Gallery
- 9 Ada and Bosch
- Appendix I Passages in Nabokov’s Novels, Stories or Autobiography Referring or Alluding to Paintings
- Appendix II Painters Mentioned or Obviously Referred to in Nabokov’s Works
- Notes
- Bibliography
- List of Illustrations and Acknowledgements
- Corresponding Pages in the Volumes Published by Vintage International and Penguin Books
- Index of Authors
- Index of Artists
- Plate Section
Summary
The plan for the present study was first discussed during the Nabokov Centenary Festival at Cornell in 1998, itself an event that exuberantly showed the arts in which Vladimir Nabokov was interested, combining literature with theatre, an art exhibition and a concert. In the following years, various suggestions for approaching the references to the visual arts in Nabokov's work were considered. Should the throng of fictitious painters be included, should the subject be addressed directly, thematically or, more safely, through the novels which include these references? More ambitious avenues were relinquished when it proved difficult to continue in an unmapped area. Ada, in many ways Nabokov's pièce de résistance, particularly so from the point of view of the fine arts, demanded so much attention that it needed an exclusive focus. Even then, we were happy to see that Liana Ashenden accepted our invitation to contribute her study on Ada and Bosch.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Nabokov and the Art of Painting , pp. 7 - 8Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2005