Lectures on Literature
lby
Vladimir Nabokov
I
Edited
by
Fredson Bowers
lntroduction
by
John Updike
\0",
of
.hi, <enlU'y',
li••
my rna""" analy,., what mak..
da~ic<
of
\
WOrld
literature fine and enduring.
Here are reading versions, prepared from Nabokov's elaborate class notes, of
Itctures he delivered in his popular undergraduate course at Cornell Univer-
I
~ty
in the fifties. From the stance of an eminent literary figure explaining the
~ork
of his peers, Nabokov discusses the fiction of jane Austen, Charles
Dickens, Gustave Flaubert; james joyce, Franz Kafka, Marcel Proust, and
"
Robert Louis Stevenson. His remarks, intended for a broad audience, demon–
Irate Nabokov's stunning abi lity to share his insight into the sensual and
ntellectual delights of great books. In his words: "We shall watch the artist
uild his castle of cards and watch the castle of ca rd s become a castle of
[
\eautiful steel and glass." A second volume, to be published in the spring of
981, will cover Ru ssian writers.
VLADIMIR NABOKOV, who died in 1977, was world-renowned as a
love\ist, literary analyst, and translator.
[iBJ/Bruccoli C lark
'16
pages 7
1
/2
X
10
With black-and-white drawings
October
$19.95
1
1m]
~COURT
BRACE JOVANOVICH
757 Third Avenue
New
York, New York
10017
