I finally went by to check out the Nabokov Museum on Bolshaya Morskaya, near St. Isaac's, on Friday afternoon (when I'd normally have been in class, ah, yes, best decision I ever made). This is something I'd been meaning to do for a while, feeling an obligation as a Wellesley student (and you all know Nabokov's history with Wellesley) and also an interest as I got really into Nabokov after finally reading Pnin and Lolita this fall.
I'd heard mixed reviews of this museum..... some people had been impressed, one person says it's her favorite museum, most were severely underwhelmed.
Well, it's any author-apartment museum in St. Petersburg. One room, some photographs, a couple of objects that used to belong to the writer. I wasn't expecting much more than that, so I wasn't disappointed. I thoroughly enjoyed one photo of an older Nabokov in the 70s in the German or Swiss countryside, posing with his butterfly net, wearing an unbuttoned shirt with nothing undernear, white knee socks and funny awkward shorts.
BUT, those museum curators are liars! Ok, yes, they mentioned Wellesley and Cornell and all that in the little history at the beginning, BUT, but, BUT, they also claim to have the only collection of Nabokov's butterflies in the world on display for the public to see.... lies! Blasphemy! We have our very own little glass case of about 5 of Nabokov's butterflies in our very own Wellesley College Russian Department. So there. You can check the Wellesley College Russian Department website for varification -- there is even a photo of said butterflies as taken by my good friend Abigal Lees in the banner at the top (you may need to refresh a few times).
Moral of the story: do not trust everything you read in museums.
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