wanted to read Chekhov but wasn’t sure what translation to look for, learned that Nabokov had a dislike for Constance Garnett, remembered that Nabokov was also on my todo list, started Pnin, and right away, he’s doing the moves, dumping on Garnett 🤗

photograph of page sixty-something of "Pnin" not Nabokovit reads:He tried habitats of another type: rooms for rent in private houses which, although differing from each other in many respects (not all, for instance, were clapboard ones; a few were stucco, or at least partly stucco), had one generic characteristic in common: in their parlor or stair-landing bookcases Hendrik Willem van Loon and Dr. Cronin were inevitably present; they might be separated by a flock of magazines, or by some glazed and buxom historical romance, or even by Mrs.Garnett impersonating somebody (and in such houses there would be sure to hang somewhere a Toulouse-Lautrec poster), but you found the pair without fail, exchanging looks of tender recognition, like two old friends at a crowded party.