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.
Figure 1. 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..
Posted on Mastodon over two years agoon March 31, 2024 - 8:50 PM and archived here at /mastodon/2024/03/31/112192273187022060/at https://pizza.slow.high.quality.gravely.pizza/mastodon/2024/03/31/112192273187022060/ in the Mastodon collection in both HTML and markdown.
Proximate posts in the Mastodon collection
Newer Mastodon post from April 2, 2024, 112202903015867309 02 April 2024
This post Mastodon post from March 31, 2024, 112192273187022060 31 March 2024
Older Mastodon post from March 30, 2024, 112181881104101019 30 March 2024
Proximate posts in the General collection
Newer my clown shoes 01 April 2024
This post Mastodon post from March 31, 2024, 112192273187022060 31 March 2024
Older Mastodon post from March 30, 2024, 112181881104101019 30 March 2024