---
source: mastodon
date: 2024-03-31 20:50:31.00 +00
title: "Mastodon post from March 31, 2024, 112192273187022060"
post_uri: https://mastodon.social/users/gravely/statuses/112192273187022060
post_id: 112192273187022060
tags:
  - mastodon
---
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.](./112192272886769706.jpeg)