“Efface, expunge,
erase, delete, rub
out, wipe out,
obliterate”:
Nabokov’s
composition TOoL
Vladimir Nabokov &
Composition
NeMLA 2014
Simon Rowberry
Simon.Rowberry@winchester.ac.uk
@sprowberry

Nabokov’s use of Index Cards

“I find not that index cards really the best
kind of paper that I can use for the
purpose. I don't write consecutively from
the beginning to the next chapter and so
on to the end. I just fill in the gaps of the
picture, of this jigsaw, puzzle which is
quite clear in my mind, picking out a
piece here and piece there”
(SO, 16-17)

“[Index cards] were my
father’s version of the
computer, there to be moved
and rearranged.”
(Dmitri Nabokov, interview with
Times [London])

“Texts that have been extended inside-
out produce a different kind of
essential indeterminacy. Instead of
looking for the missing fact, the extra
piece that will solve the puzzle, we may
need to deal with facts that contradict
each other”
(Sullivan, Art of Revision)

Marketing TOoL?

“it justifies the use of heavyweight paper
and the decision to leave every other
page blank, thus resulting in a 280-page
hardcover and what the industry calls a
higher ‘price point.’”
(Nathaniel Rich, “The Nabokov Mess”)

“Without a map of the unrealized novel
we cannot inspect its grounds; not
knowing the system of its inlet and outlet
canals we cannot even admire, let alone
navigate it”
(Barabtarlo, “Terminating the Phrase)

“Note, for example, the lack of
perforation around the typed portions of
the text. Do what we will with the cards,
the official, authoritative interpretation of
The Original of Laura stays intact.”
(Ardoin)

Blank back Double-sided
1
2 3

A Reading TOoL?

The Times (London)

The Access Problem
14 February 2011
21 new cards are found
600 words of almost 1200 form a single
draft scene

“Efface, expunge,
erase, delete, rub
out, wipe out,
obliterate”:
Nabokov’s
composition TOoL
Vladimir Nabokov &
Composition
NeMLA 2014
Simon Rowberry
Simon.Rowberry@winchester.ac.uk
@sprowberry