Nabokov's Butterflies: Limited Edition [Hardcover]

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (Author), Robert Michael Pyle (Editor), Brian Boyd (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2000 | ISBN-10: 0807085421 | ISBN-13: 978-0807085424 | Edition: Limited

Edited and Annotated by Brian Boyd and Robert Michael Pyle New Translations from the Russian by Dmitri Nabokov This extraordinary verbal and visual feast of never-before-seen Nabokoviana presents the great writer's lifelong passions for literature and butterflies through a rich array of novels, stories, poems, autobiography, interviews, diaries, and more, plus a wealth of beautiful and fanciful drawings by Nabokov and photographs of him in the field.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Admirers of the great novelist Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) know that collecting and classifying butterflies was for him not so much a hobby as an obsession, especially during the 1940s, when he worked for Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology and made important discoveries about the American genera known as Blues. Butterfly-linked images and ideas pervade some of his fiction, and butterfly-collecting expeditions took up much of his free time. Nabokov biographer Boyd and butterfly expert Pyle team up to offer a gigantic compendium of butterfly-relevant Nabokoviana. Reprinted here are draft reminiscences later revised for the autobiography Speak, Memory; the 1920 technical paper "A Few Notes on Crimean Lepidoptera"; selected parts of the later scientific and technical work; numerous poems with butterfly-related lines, some in English, some translated from Russian; Nabokov's last short story, "The Admirable Anglewing"; excerpts from letters and interviews; notes for the New Yorker ("Incidentally, pinching the thorax is a much simpler way of dispatching a butterfly") and segments of Nabokov's lecture notes; and lepidopteran passages from the novels and stories. Among the previously unpublished works, one standout is the 36-page essay (originally in Russian) that Nabokov meant to use as the afterword to The Gift. Also present are the surviving fragments of Nabokov's never-completed descriptive catalogue, Butterflies of Europe. Boyd and Pyle contribute separate, informative and sometimes parallel introductions. Not even a Nabokov-obsessed taxonomist would want to read this collection from start to finish: it is, though, a volume devotees will delight to browse in and scholars will want to own. 30 color and 30 b&w illus. Agent, Georges Borchardt. (Apr.) FYI: For more information on Nabokov's Butterflies, see Book News, Feb. 28.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The recent publication of Kurt Johnson and Steven L. Coates's Nabokov's Blues (LJ 10/15/99) brought to light Nabokov's expertise in the study of butterflies. The distinction of this new volume is that it contains never-before-seen writings by Nabokov on the subject. The book includes poems, letters, diary entries, interviews, and technical articles that combine the author's passions for science and literature. Nabokov biographer Boyd provides a lengthy introduction that places Nabokov's studies within the context of his life. Nabokov's son Dmitri presents a new translation, from the original Russian, of "Father's Butterflies," a 36-page afterword to The Gift. Also translated are 12 poems that had been unavailable in English. For the specialist or the reader wanting to learn more about the scientific side of Nabokov's life, there is much here to discover. Recommended for academic libraries.
-Ronald Ray Ratliff, Emporia P.L., KS
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 800 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press; Limited edition (May 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807085421
• ISBN-13: 978-0807085424
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.5 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,392,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born on April 23, 1899, in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Nabokov household was trilingual, and as a young man, he studied Slavic and romance languages at Trinity College, Cambridge, taking his honors degree in 1922. For the next eighteen years he lived in Berlin and Paris, writing prolifically in Russian under the pseudonym Sirin and supporting himself through translations, lessons in English and tennis, and by composing the first crossword puzzles in Russian. In 1925 he married Vera Slonim, with whom he had one child, a son, Dmitri. Having already fled Russia and Germany, Nabokov became a refugee once more in 1940, when he was forced to leave France for the United States. There he taught at Wellesley, Harvard, and Cornell. He also gave up writing in Russian and began composing ficticvbn ral books of criticism. Vladimir Nabokov died in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1977.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It Always Came Down To Butterflies, October 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Nabokov's Butterflies: Limited Edition (Hardcover)

"From the age of seven, everything I felt in connection with a rectangle of framed sunlight was dominated by a single passion," wrote Valdimir Nabokov. "If my first glance of the morning was for the sun, my first thought was for the butterflies it would engender." This was certainly an unusual way in which to view the world and one that not many readers, even those who adore Nabokov, have shared.

In fact, the ferocity of Nabokov's obsession with butterflies has only just begun to become clear with the publication of this gorgeous new book, a volume of heretofore unpublished and uncorrected writings on the subject of butterflies, edited by Nabokov's biographer Brian Boyd, together with Michael Pyle, an expert on butterflies. All translations were done by Nabokov's son, Dmitri, who has lavished his time and talent on his father's work for several decades.

Even those of us who cannot get enough of Nabokov and cannot praise him highly enough may find more than 700 densely-printed pages on the subject of butterflies a little much. As much as we love Nabokov, do we really want to read page after page of his highly technical descriptions of the various species of butterfly? Are these writings really important, from a scientific viewpoint? Is there any connection between Nabokov's passion for butterflies and his extraordinary fiction?

Although most people would probably answer "no" to the first two questions, the answer to the third is a surprisingly enthusiastic, "yes."

In his wonderful introduction, Boyd begins to elucidate the connections between Nabokov the writer and Nabokov the lepidopterist. We come to understand the novelist more completely and precisely by coming to understand that science that gave this unique author "a sense of reality that should not be confused with modern (or postmodern) epistemological nihilism."

It was while dissecting and deciphering his butterflies that Nabokov came to the conclusion that the more we inquire, the more we can discover, yet the more we discover, the more we find we do not know. The world, Nabokov says, is infinitely detailed, complex and deceptive.

Nabokov's important writings on butterflies are reproduced in this volume, but thankfully, in reduced form. And other kinds of writing by Nabokov have been blended over the scientific prose, beginning with the luminous meditation on butterflies from Chapter Six of Speak, Memory.

The poems, memoirs, letters, diary entries, criticism and fiction that make up this beautiful volume cover a period from 1941 to 1947, when Nabokov was at his most obsessive...as far as butterflies are concerned. This obsessiveness, however, is gorgeous to behold, as in a letter from Nabokov to Edmund Wilson about a lecture trip he made to Sweet Briar College. "The weather...was perfectly dreadful and except for a few Everes comyntas there was nothing on the wing." It always came down to butterflies.

Nabokov's interest in butterflies went far beyond sorting out and naming them. He was much more than a mere tabulator or categorizer. There is something exquisitely metaphysical, even mystical, about his approach to butterflies, something that also tells us of his quest to plumb the depths of nature's complexity. In his obsession, Nabokov sought to understand the sense of design that underlies the the physical world, and he also took enormous delight in the mysteries God chose to hide from human beings, leaving to them to seek them out or not.

As Boyd notes, Nabokov "preferred the small type to the main text, the obscure to the obvious, the thrill of finding for himself what was not common knowledge." His scientific writings overflow with minutiae, with obscure details, lovingly searched out, sorted, underlined, displayed. This preference for the complexity of life also underscores his writings, most notably his massive commentary on Pushkin's Onegin, the gorgeous and imaginative Pale Fire and Ada, a late masterpiece in which Nabokov's penchant for complexity reached spellbinding heights.

While only a small percentage of readers may want to study the scientific articles in this book, their very presence operates in the most subtle of ways to remind us that Nabokov, who referred to himself as VN, was also a student "of that other VN, Visible Nature." In his magnificent fiction, Nabokov offered the world a complete view of the complexity and richness of the human spirit. He might not have been so meticulous and so thorough were it not for his passion for the intricate world of butterflies, so beautifully on view in this book.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yes! Yes! Yes!, April 20, 2000

By 

dandylion001 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nabokov's Butterflies: Unpublished and Uncollected Writings (Hardcover)

Pick up this book, open it to any page and begin reading. You won't be able to put it down. From "Laughter," a poem as lovely and delicate as the azure it honors, to the detailed drawings, artistic renderings, and delightful writings, it soon becomes obvious that Nabokov saw a universe in a butterfly's wing. How fortunate we are that he left this magnificent record of his thought and activity. Begin reading anywhere and soon you will be drawn into his world, a world always colored by the butterflies and moths that were his passion. Now I have to reread his fiction with a new eye. Nabokov's passionate life and work is an inspiration to the least of us.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Nabokov's Butterflies", November 14, 2010

By 

Alexandro C. Telander "Alex C. Telander" (Roseville, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nabokov's Butterflies: Limited Edition (Hardcover)

Last year a beautiful book became available that was apparently missed by many. Maybe it was because of length, numbering some eight hundred pages; maybe it was the unknown author, Vladimir Nabokov, whose name was unable to stir emotions in readers, prompting them to out and acquire this book; or maybe it was the title, Nabokov's Butterflies, and this accusation (not to mention the picture of butterflies on the cover) that led the reader to steer clear of this book.

Some thought the collection entailed poems and excerpts, but mostly boring and pointless stories about butterflies and their scientific aspect. People who fall into any of the above categories made a big mistake, and for the ones who never heard about the book: read further and then make a serious decision about acquiring this piece of unique literature.

Vladimir Nabokov was born in Russia and from an early age fell in love with butterflies. "If my first glance of the morning was for the sun, my first thought was for the butterflies it would engender," writes Nabokov in an excerpt from his autobiography. Also, at this age, Nabokov began writing poems and stories, and then he turned to novels about butterflies. He is also the creator of stories where butterflies are incorporated into the general fiction as a metaphor or some decide to enhance an aspect about the character or point about the plot, this making the story poignant in a never before seen way.

In the story "Pale Fire," the first of one of the stanzas in a poem is: "Another winter was scrape-scooped away." The writing is just so fresh, aching with beautiful language that stirs up emotions and renders one simply in awe with this awesome prose. Another line of wisdom from Nabokov: "Whichever subject you have chosen, you must realize that knowledge of it is limitless," from one of his lectures on writing. So this is isn't just an anthology of poems and stories about butterflies, but a collection containing the jewels of information that will benefit everyone.

In this anthology you will find a piece of everything that Nabokov did: excerpts from novels (including Lolita, his most famous piece of work), novellas, poems, notes, letters, lecture notes, diary entries, reviews, interviews, articles, even minutes from the Cambridge Entomological Club. Amongst this plethora of material, there are also pieces that have never been published before, such as excerpts from the Lolita screenplay (Stanley Kubrick's version), the second addendum to his story "The Gift," and draft notes from an unfinished novel, The Butterflies of Europe. Finally, there are many sketches and drawings of butterflies by the author, some in color, others in an array of colors, all overflowing in stark detail and beauty, revealing another unknown talent of the author.

In Brian Boyd's introduction, "Nabokov, Literature, Lepidoptera," he compares Nabokov to Beckett, calling their visions polar opposites - Beckett is polar while Nabokov is tropical - "Nabokov saw life as a `great surprise' amid great surprises."

Vladimir Nabokov's son, Dmitri, who plays a vital part in this anthology, translating Russian pieces to English that have never been translated before, writes in his diary on July 21, 1977, shortly before Nabokov died: "A few days before he died there was a moment I remember with special clarity. During the penultimate farewell, after I had kissed his still-warm forehead - as I had for years when saying goodbye - tears suddenly welled in Father's eyes. I asked him why. He replied that certain butterfly was already on the wing; and his eyes told me he no longer hoped that he would live to pursue it again."

So go out and get a hold of a copy of Nabokov's Butterflies and you will be taken to a world you did not know existed, where butterflies are your guides, poems are your walking sticks, novel excerpts your pathways, and the rest completes this rich tapestry of magnificence. You will go away as a wiser and more enlightened person with a great feeling to be owning this admirable and useful piece of literature.

Originally published on February 5th 2001 ©Alex C. Telander.

Originally published in the Long Beach Union.

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