Nabokov's Butterfly: And Other Stories of Great Authors and Rare Books

Rare book dealer Rick Gekoski's Nabokov's Butterfly (published in England as Tolkien's Gown) is a delightful collection of short essays centered around various important books of the twentieth century, from Joyce's Ulysses to Kerouac's On the Road to Rowling's Harry Potter series.

Gekoski's anecdotes about his experiences with these books, their authors and their (sometimes bizarre) publishing histories are enlightening and amusing from first to last: he sold Graham Greene's copy of Lolita to Bernie Taupin the day after he acquired it (and, it seems, has regretted it since); he played a bit-part in J.D. Salinger's famous lawsuit against would-be-biographer Ian Hamilton (and dared to suggest a hilariously appropriate resolution to the show more same); and he tries to get at the heart of such important bibliophilic questions as why it is that people find pristine copies of certain books so utterly irresistible.

One of the (not uncommon) moments at which I laughed out loud while reading this book was after Gekoski quoted his catalog description of the copy of Sylvia Plath's The Colossus and Other Poems inscribed from Plath to her husband Ted Hughes just months before her death. Following the quote, he writes "If you don't immediately feel how exciting this book is - if you haven't in some form or another, just whispered 'that is so fabulous!' to yourself - I'm afraid you don't have the makings of a book collector. I'm not even sure I would like you very much." Harsh? Perhaps, but probably quite fair.

A nicely-designed volume, with beautiful endpapers featuring color images of the books discussed within, this is a highly enjoyable book from one of the leading lights of the current trade in modern literary fiction.

http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2008/09/book-review-nabokovs-butterfly.html show less

I quite enjoyed this book, but it made me realise how woefully under-read I am. I've got a reading goal now and that's to read everything from this book that I haven't read, which sadly is most. Some thoughts:

At first reading a book may satisfy or disappoint, surprise or irritate, cause tears or laughter. But whatever happens is irrevocable: Little Nell will always die, James Bond will continue to defeat the forces of evil, Pooh will keep his paw in that honeypot.

So so true and 100% agreed. At the same time there's something comforting about re-visiting an old favourite. Knowing that whatever else is topsy turvy in the world, old favourites will remain constant.

Such is the pathology of ambition: a goal having been attained is merely show more redefined

Again, so so true. I look at this with my own life. Wanting to work overseas and I've done that. Now what, it doesn't seem enough though I know by any standards, including my own ten years ago it's plenty.

And now for my reading list for the next...I don't know. No timeline. Just books I think I really need to (re)read:

Lolita
The Hobbit (read this but only in Spanish, suppose I should try English)
Lord of the Flies (read this in high school, would love to reread)
The Picture of Dorian Gray
On The Road (Actually tried this last year, couldn't get into it)
Ulysses
Sons and Lovers (had a copy for a bit, it never caught my interest)
The Catcher in the Rye (reread this one recently)
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
The Colossus
A Confederacy of Dunces
Brideshead Revisited
The Tale of Peter Rabbit (must have read this as a child)
Three Stories and Ten Poems
After Two Years
Animal Farm
The Satanic Verses
Poems (1919)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - I'm really in two minds about whether this book belongs on such a list. I like Harry Potter but it's fluff
High Windows

Passed the book on to iAteaBreakfast and then Ute has asked to read it so it will be doing the Osaka rounds for a bit. show less

This book can be read quickly, as it consists of brief anecdotes and factoids about various classic novels of the 20th century. The author is a dealer in rare books and has over the years picked up some great stories about books and their often-eccentric authors. Thus 'Tolkein's Gown' is a sort of anthology. I found some sections funny, others not so suited to my sense of humour. My favourite snippets concerned 'Animal Farm'. Not only was the manuscript nearly destroyed during the Blitz, sustaining some singeing, but one publisher suggested that what it needed was the removal of the pigs!

I was less interested in the price that first editions command. The arbitrariness of book value rather baffles me; to me fair Gekoski also expresses show more this sentiment. I am decidedly not a book collector, as soon as I've read something it'll go back to the library or be passed onto someone else, with rare exceptions. The condition of a book also seems to me irrelevant, as long as it remains readable. On the other hand, it must be a much trickier to keep first editions pristine these days as bindings are of such poor quality. The glue holding pages in seems to perish after a few years, tops. Those tangents aside, 'Tolkein's Gown' is amusing but the tone felt a little uncomfortably self-congratulatory. It's also fairly slight, as anecdotage is wont to be.

I was also reminded that, although it's supposed to be such a work of incredible genius, I don't want to read 'Ulysses'. show less

Here was all the good stuff that was missing from his later book, "Outside of a Dog." Neither book describes how he moved from being a college professor to a top tier bookman, but at least we're hearing now some interesting anecdotes about the "story behind the book", all engagingly written.

Even though the author is a bit taken with himself and has a bit of an overfondness for name-dropping, this book is a really fun read.

A delightful romp through the tales connected with ten important rare books which provides an understanding of the trade and a lot of GREAT literary anecdotes, Highly recommended.

You'd have to be a rare-book collecting nerd like me to thoroughly enjoy this book. Even still, the author does a very good job detailing some of the world's biggest rare-book deals -- most of which he conveniently was involved with one way or another. You'll learn about rare editions of: Lolita, The Hobbit, Lord of the Flies, The Pictures of Dorian Gray, [b:On the Road|6288|The Road|Cormac McCarthy|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21E8H3D1JSL._SL75_.jpg|3355573], Ulysses, Sons and Lovers, The Catcher in the Rye, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, The Colossus, A Confederacy of Dunces, Animal Farm, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.