Emerson's Antislavery Writings Book

Brian Boyd, who knows more about Vladimir Nabokov and Nabokov's wonders than anyone (Except perhaps for Nabokov's son Dmitri, who is the approximate age of Updike and Roth and Salinger and who is, if it is to be believed, blogging!Dmitri Nabokov) provides solutions (some hesitant, others confident) to the beautiful mystery of Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle. Now, if I could only make sense of his solutions. . .

To understand nature's design Nabokov would peer into his microscope and count out with patient delight the scales of a butterfly wing. That is what he wants of us: to explore and enjoy his worlds with this kind of precision, word by word. If we are ready to do that, he will reward unstintingly our unstinting curiosity.

That quote alone is worth the price of the book (which was free for me anyway, a gift from my lovely wife, but still). It comes late, though. I felt it could have described Boyd's book as well, the best parts of which were the quotes, long and short, from Ada and elsewhere. And for the patient (or the impatient chapter-skippers) there is the reward of a bitchy coda; Boyd's response to another Nabokovian "scholar."

Here's an extra link for the Ada obsessed: Ada Online