The author of such global bestsellers as Lolita and Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) is also one of the most controversial literary translators and translation theorists of modern time. In Between Rhyme and Reason, Stanislav Shvabrin discloses the complexity, nuance, and contradictions behind Nabokov's theory and practice of literalism to reveal how and why translation came to matter to Nabokov so much. Drawing on familiar as well as unknown materials, Shvabrin traces the surprising and largely unknown trajectory of Nabokov's lifelong fascination with translation to demonstrate that, for Nabokov, translation was a form of intellectual communion with his peers across no fewer than six languages. Empowered by Mikhail Bakhtin's insights into the interactive roots of literary creativity, Shvabrin's interpretative chronicle of Nabokov's involvement with translation shows how his dialogic encounters with others in the medium of translation left verbal vestiges on his own creations. Refusing to regard translation as a form of individual expression, Nabokov translated to communicate with his interlocutors, whose words and images continue to reverberate throughout his allusion-rich texts.

This book presents translations of two celebrated works by Georgy Ivanov. Disintegration of the Atom (1938) is a prose poem depicting Russian emigre despair on the eve of WWII-a cri de coeur that challenges prevailing concepts of time and space, ending in erotically charged wretchedness. Petersburg Winters (1928/1952) is a portrait of Petersburg swept up in the artistic ferment of late Imperial and Revolutionary Russia. The spirit of the city is conveyed through a series of vignettes of Ivanov's contemporaries, including Blok, Akhmatova, Esenin, and Mandelstam.

Petersburg Winters (1928), a portrait of Petersburg drowning in the artistic ferment of late Imperial and Revolutionary Russia. Georgy Ivanov is the fictional narrator of this tragic and artistically glorious period 1910-1925. Ivanov's memoir is controversial, part of the so-called "Petersburg text", of Russian literature. The spirit of the city is conveyed through a series of vignettes of contemporary writers such as Blok, Akhmatova, and Mandelstam. Disintegration of the Atom (1937) is a prose poem depicting Russian despair in Paris on the eve of WWII. A cri de coeur that challenges our concepts of time and space and leads to erotically charged wretchedness. This exciting collection is suitable for courses on early twentieth century literary memoir and cultural history.