Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years
- ISBN-10
- 1400884020
- ISBN-13
- 9781400884025
- Series
- Vladimir Nabokov
- Category
- Biography & Autobiography
- Pages
- 619
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2016-06-10
- Publisher
- Princeton University Press
- Author
- Brian Boyd
Description
This first major critical biography of Vladimir Nabokov, one of the greatest of twentieth-century writers, finally allows us full access to the dramatic details of his life and the depths of his art. An intensely private man, Nabokov was uprooted first by the Russian Revolution and then by World War II. Transformed into a permanent wanderer, he did not achieve fame until late in life, with the success of Lolita. In this first of two volumes, Brian Boyd vividly describes the liberal milieu of the aristocratic Nabokovs, their escape from Russia, Nabokov's education at Cambridge, and the murder of his father in Berlin. Boyd then turns to the years that Nabokov spent, impoverished, in Germany and France, until the coming of Hitler forced him to flee, with wife and son, to the United States. This volume stands on its own as a fascinating exploration of Nabokov's Russian years and Russian worlds, prerevolutionary and émigré. In the course of his ten years' work on the biography, Boyd traveled along Nabokov's trail everywhere from Yalta to Palo Alto. The only scholar to have had free access to the Nabokov archives in Montreux and the Library of Congress, he also interviewed at length Nabokov's family and scores of his friends and associates. For the general reader, Boyd offers an introduction to Nabokov the man, his works, and his world. For the specialist, he provides a basis for all future research on Nabokov's life and art, as he dates and describes the composition of all Nabokov's works, published and unpublished. Boyd investigates Nabokov's relation to and his independence from his time, examines the special structures of his mind and thought, and explains the relations between his philosophy and his innovations of literary strategy and style. At the same time he provides succinct introductions to all the fiction, dramas, memoirs, and major verse; presents detailed analyses of the major books that break new ground for the scholar, while providing easy paths into the works for other readers; and shows the relationship between Nabokov's life and the themes and subjects of his art.
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov
By Vladimir NabokovRead as a whole, The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov offers and intoxicating draft of the master's genius, his devious wit, and his ability to turn language into an instrument of ecstasy.
-
Vladimir Nabokov: Selected Letters: 1940–1977
By Vladimir NabokovMaslov would be perfect, minus hair. 2. The glasses should be definitely tortoise-shell ones, with heavier, somewhat squarish frames. 3. The nose is very important. It should be the Russian potato nose, fat and broad, with prominent ...
-
Insomniac Dreams: Experiments with Time by Vladimir Nabokov
By Vladimir NabokovThey show Nabokov at his most vulnerable, raw, and genuine, giving us rare glimpses into his past, his feelings about his parents, his relationship with his wife and son, and his anxieties and hopes. This is a very important book.
-
The Secret History of Vladimir Nabokov
By Andrea PitzerFrom Tsarist courts to Nazi film sets, from the CIA to wartime Casablanca, the story of Nabokov’s family is the story of his century—and both are woven inextricably into his fiction.
-
Conversations with Vladimir Nabokov
By Robert GollaThe interviews in this collection are essential for seeking a clearer understanding of the life and work of an author who was pivotal in shaping the landscape of contemporary fiction.
-
Vladimir Nabokov: Overlook Illustrated Lives
By Jane GraysonHistory seemed to pursue Vladimir Nabokov. In the Russian Revolution and the Second World War he lost his homeland, social position and family, and was even forced to abandon working...
-
The Original of Laura
By Vladimir NabokovPhotos of the handwritten index cards accompany the text. They are perforated and can be removed and rearranged, as the author likely did when he was writing the novel.
-
The Enchanter
By Vladimir NabokovThe precursor to Nabokov's classic novel, Lolita. • A middle-aged man weds an unattractive widow in order to indulge his obsession with her daughter. • "A gem to be appreciated by any admirer of the most graceful and provocative ...
-
Vladimir Nabokov
By Neil Cornwell, University Prof of Russian and Comparative Literature Neil CornwellVladimir Nabokov's extraordinary literary career, as a master of Russian and English prose, is unique.
-
Strong Opinions
By Vladimir NabokovPart of a major new series of the works of Vladimir Nabokov, author of Lolita and Pale Fire, in Penguin Classics.