Tag Archives: Vladimir Nabokov

England’s Most Humane Novel

By Robin Bates | Published: January 27, 2014

A new bibliomemoir on “Middlemarch” shows a book shaping a life.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

Novels: Training Ground for Citizenship

By Robin Bates | Published: March 20, 2013

Novels have an inherently liberal dimension in that they get us to identify with people very different from us.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Paterno’s Rapist Associate and Mr. Hyde

By Robin Bates | Published: November 10, 2011

“Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” warns us that we are in danger of becoming monsters ourselves if we don’t hold on to our humanity when responding to monsters like alleged child molester Jerry Sandusky, close associate of Coach Joe Paterno.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

Moments of Perfect Being

By Robin Bates | Published: July 29, 2010

Today we head home after having spent a delicious week in our Maine cottage with our sons Darien and Toby, along with our daughter-in-law Betsy and Toby’s girlfriend Candice.  We immersed ourselves in memory and tradition while we were here.  Portraits of my great-great grandparents John and Remember Berry Swett, are on the wall, as […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

Michael Jackson and Peter Pan

By Robin Bates | Published: July 9, 2009

  “I am Peter Pan,” Michael Jackson reportedly once said, and of course he chose to name his ranch Neverland. In this second of my two posts marking Jackson’s death, I thought I would reflect upon why J. M. Barrie’s fictional creation meant so much to him. Peter Pan: The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Iranian Women Identifying with Lolita

By Robin Bates | Published: July 2, 2009

The kicker in the book title Reading Lolita in Iran is the shock of imagining people risking their freedom to read Nabokov’s scandalous masterpiece about an elderly writer who falls in love with twelve-year-old “nymphet” Dolores Hayes. What would anyone get out of that experience? The surprises keep on coming in Azar Nafisi’s book as […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments closed