Nabokov Loved Dwarves
Elif Batuman, whose new book, “The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them,” is wonderful, has unearthed seven never-produced screenplays written by cultural titans, Theodor Adorno and Kasimir Malevich among them. My favorite: the phenomenally depressing 1924 screenplay written by a young Vladimir Nabokov (pictured) called “The Love of a Dwarf.” What? You don’t think the story of a sexually frustrated London circus performer who has a one-night stand with the depressed, childless wife of a circus magician has box-office written all over it?
