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Прелестное
Инструкции Набокова. Как рисовать Пнина.
To: Jason Epstein
cc, 2 pp.
Ithaca, N.Y.
1 October 1956
Dear Mr. Epstein,
I have just received the sketches. They are executed with talent, the picture as art is first-rate, but in regard to my Pnin it is wrong: The sketch looks like the portrait of an underpaid instructor in the English department or like a Republican's notion of a defeated Adlai (имеется в виду проигравший на выборах 1952 г. Эдлай Ситвенсон, кандидат от демократической партии; интересно, что в момент написания письма выборы 1956 г. еще не прошли, но всем было ясно, что Эйзенхауэр победит и останется в офисе второй тёрм - gr_s), when actually he should look like a Russian muzhik clean-shaven. I am sending you some photografs of Pnin-like Russians, with and without hair, for a visual appreciation of the items I am going to discuss.
1. The head should look quite bald, without any dark margin, and must be ampler, rounder, smoother, more dome-like. Note Zhavoronkov and Yegorov for the type of head, which however should be bigger in Pnin's case, not egg-shaped. Maslov would be perfect, minus hair.
2. The glasses should be definitely tortoise-shell ones, with heavier, somewhat squarish frames.
3. The nose is very important. It should be the Russian potato nose, fat and broad, with prominent nostril curves. See Zhukovski for nostrils, and Obrastsov for a replica of Pnin's fat glossy organ; but Pavlov and Maslov are also good.
4. The terribly important space between nose and upper lip. This must be simian, large, long, with a central hollow and lateral furows. See Zhavoronkov, Baykov Yegorov, Zhukovski. The latter's lips are very Pninian. Pnin's bad teeth should not show.
5. The cheeks and jowls. Jowls and jaw should be large, broad, massive. See Baykov, Zhavoronkov, Yegorov.
6. The shoulders should be very broad, square, padded. Pnin wears a ready-made American suit of four years age.
7. The tie should be a flamboyant one.
Now, instead of all this, sketches show a puny professor Milksop, with an egg-shaped face, flat nose, short upper lip, non-descript chin, sloping shoulders, and a necktie of a comedy bookkeeper. I have notices long ago that for some reason illustrators do not read the books they illustrate. In my book, all the details listed above are mentioned in the first chapter, and repeat further on.
The lettering, title and name, is very handsome in both sketches. The larger one is perhaps more pleasing.
Splendid idea to have Pnin hold a book. The title on the book he holds sould read
ПНИН
В.НАБОКОВ
I shall certainly not make any arrangements for LOLITA in this country before discussing them with you. Everything you have done for LOLITA until now delights me. I hope you will publish the thing in its entirely some day.*
I approve in advance whatever selection you make for the Anchor Review. It might be difficult for me to help there since in my mind I see the book as a whole.**
We shall arrive in New York on Monday, the 15th, in the evening, and would like to see you on the 16th (any time is convenient) or on the 17th (evening only). We shall leave early on the 18th. It would be helpful if you could let me know what is your preference, for I would like to plan the rest of my stay.
Yes, I have met Fred Dupee, though not in the Partisan Review, but years ago on a little peak in Darien.
The signed agreements must have reached you by now.
Sincerely yours,
Vladimir Nabokov
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* "There was considerable enthusiasm among the Doubleday editors for Lolita , though we were all-apprehensive about possible legal consequences. As I recall, Ken McCormick, the editor-in-chief at the time, would have agreed to publish it if Douglas Black, the president of the company, authorized it. But Black was so strongly opposed that he refused even to read the manuscript." Jason Epstein to Sally Dennison, 23 February 1982; Dennison, (Alternative) Literary Publishing (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1984), p. 157.
**The June 1957 issue of The Anchor Review (Doubleday) included an excerpt from Lolita and articles about the novel by VN and F.W. Dupee.
[Vladimir Nabokov. Selected Letters 1940-1977. A Harvest / HBJ Books. San Diego, NY, London, 1989. Pp.190-1.] |