NPPF - preliminary

[Malignd]

<<But at the same time there is the _Eugene Onegin_
translation/annotation and the obvious fact that this
shaped the structure, themes and method of _Pale
Fire_.>>

The comparison to Eugene Onegin and the ensuing
squabble with Edmund Wilson are enticing comparisons,
but that Eugene Onegin was published after Pale Fire. 
Which isn't to say that work on one didn't overlap
with work on the other, but the chronology is
questionable.  There's undoubtedly someone who can
speak to this, but publication dates for PF and EO are
1962 and 1964, respectively, so its difficult to speak
of EO shaping PF -- without more information, anyway.

<<That is a *very* literal reading and it depends on
who you're trusting at this point. One thing I like
about _Pale Fire_ is that I am never exactly sure what
happens at the end, who kills, and why. By the end I
don't trust any of them, including the apparently
reliable narrator who attempts to correct Kinbote's
errors throughout. And so I can't (and deliberately
don't want) to trust this reading either. (Though I
accept it is the one that makes the most *sense,*
whatever that means in this novel.)>>

We'll have ample opportunity to go into this when the
time comes.  But I don't think one needs stick to a
"very literal reading" to be persuaded of the flesh
and blood reality of Jack Grey.


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