"Signs or symbols, satire or realism, closure or no closure, soluble or insoluble riddle? Responding to the challenge presented by this enigmatic short story, aware that Nabokov did not believe in what he called 'the symbolism racket', the contributors to this excellent collection of articles have mobilized a wide spectrum of hermeneutics. Convinced, with John V. Hagopian, that 'no legitimate artist produces randomness', they gamely attempted to quiz the author's elusive figure, developing a brand of creative paranoia, yet never claiming, except in one case (Dolinin), to play the part of the oracle. The result is a challenging exercise of 'Practical Criticism' which touches upon the bone and structure of Nabokov's work." -- Maurice Couturier, Professor Emeritus, University of Nice, France, writer and translator, editor-in-chief of the Pléiade edtion of Nabokov's novels.

The critical anthology is called “Anatomy of a Short Story” not accidentally. What we have here is not a marauding or exhuming of a senseless body, but a study of a living artistic organism. Collective dissection presupposes using various methods, diversified optics and descriptive procedures… Yuri Leving's own array of scholarly interests turns “Anatomy” from a potentially dull registrar's compendium into a collection of peculiar and often unexpected utterances about Nabokov's text… This book will prove handy to anyone interested both in Nabokov as well as in studying literary texts in general.

Mikhail Efimov, LiteraruS - Literaturnoe Slovo

Leving's collection is a huge achievement, and its scope is impressive, with thirty articles in total, mostly previously published, spanning over thirty years of scholarship. This is the book's foremost triumph and as such positions itself alongside the Garland Companion to Vladimir Nabokov, is a must for anyone interested in Nabokov's story and, more generally, the historical progression of Nabokov studies.

Matthew Apperley, UCL SSEES, The Slavonic and East European Review (Vol. 92, No. 2, April 2014)

Following the success of his Keys to the Gift: A Guide to Vladimir Nabokov's Novel (Boston, MA, 2011) Leving's latest foray into Nabokov studies comes at a crucial moment in the field. Little has been published on Nabokov in recent years that matches the powerhouse of scholarship of the past; maybe the time is right to address where we are with Nabokov and, potentially, where we are going. In this regard Leving's collection is a huge achievement, and its scope is impressive, with thirty articles in total, mostly previously published, spanning over thirty years of scholarship. This is the book's foremost triumph and as such positions itself alongside the Garland Companion to Vladimir Nabokov (New York, 1995), is a must for anyone interested in Nabokov's story and, more generally, the historical progression of Nabokov studies.

Matthew Apperley, UCL SSEES, UK, Slavonic & East European Review