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  1. Vladimir Nabokov here correcting the first page of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. When i first saw this at an exhibit at the New York Public Library in 1999, I thought it was outrageous (it’s debated how much German he actually knew, despite living in Berlin for a spell after Russia). He also made edits in Madame Bovary and Ulysses. For translations into English, like Kafka and Flaubert, the edits may make sense for this literary pedant (and one with synesthesia), but the treatment for Joyce is rather insolent. Classic Nabokov.

    Vladimir Nabokov here correcting the first page of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. When i first saw this at an exhibit at the New York Public Library in 1999, I thought it was outrageous (it’s debated how much German he actually knew, despite living in Berlin for a spell after Russia). He also made edits in Madame Bovary and Ulysses. For translations into English, like Kafka and Flaubert, the edits may make sense for this literary pedant (and one with synesthesia), but the treatment for Joyce is rather insolent. Classic Nabokov.

    3 years ago  /  Notes