I haven't scanned my thesis into a digital format; that's a good idea so I can send you a copy via email. Your knowledge of Italian grammar is impressive; I get along in Russian without even being able often to distinguish dative from accusative, let alone recognizing different shades of the subjunctive. I just try to guess the meaning of the sentence by context (not always successfully). I regard my reading of some difficult languages as an active, interactive process -- the author supplying some of the meaning, and me the rest! It frees up the imagination, while losing much of the author's original intent. For example, in the biography I just read of Pushkin's wife Natalie, the author referred to her ancestral home which welcomed Pushkin as the "Cotton Factory." A sly name, I thought, referring to the many children Pushkin sired there amidst the sheets, but a few sentences later the author explained that Natalie's grandfather had built a factory there that made the sails for Peter the Great's fleet. I got to enjoy my own pun in a way I wouldn't have had I been reading in English.
I keep on meaning to review Russian grammar, but it doesn't hold my interest compared to the long list of fascinating books waiting to be read. I've just started a biography of Potemkin, an amazing character in Russian history.
I read some of Lolita in English a long time ago; I remember being just in awe of the language, which I found to be the most gorgeous English I had ever read, but not being so impressed by the story itself or the ideas. I think he's an author I have to read in English; the Russian would be just too hard.
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