Nabokov's father chose to move the family to Berlin in order to settle down. Nabokov and his brother subsequently enrolled at Cambridge University, where Nabokov majored in French and Russian literature. Political unrest forced the Nabokov family to leave Russia for England in 1919. This childhood of privilege ended with the Bolshevik revolution and the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. He wrote his first poem at the age of 15 and privately published two books of poetry before leaving the school. He has been described as an arrogant student who came to school each day in the family's Rolls-Royce. In 1911 Nabokov entered the highly regarded Tenishev School. Meanwhile, Nabokov's mother, Elena Ivanova, raised the three boys and two girls in aristocratic fashion, using several governesses and tutors who taught the children French and English along with Russian. He was imprisoned in 1908 for ninety days for his involvement in a political manifesto. The Nabokovs lived largely at piece with the czar's regime, though Nabokov's father, Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, was a famous and controversial liberal politician. He enjoyed playing tennis and soccer in his youth, but also spent many hours chasing and collecting butterflies, a passion he apparently learned from his father.Īt the time of Nabokov's adolescence, Russia was under the rule of the doomed czar, Nicholas II. Petersburg, and an estate fifty miles to the south in the countryside).

The eldest of five children, he grew up in a wealthy and aristocratic family, moving between two homes (one in St. The seriousness of his aesthetic credo, his passion for great writing and his mix of delight and dismay at his own, sudden global fame in the 1950s are all brilliantly delineated.Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, most famous as the author of Lolita, was born on or about Apin St. Here he is at his most inspirational, curious, playful, misleading and caustic. Introduced and edited by his biographer Brian Boyd, this is an essential work for anyone who has been drawn into Nabokov's literary orbit. The last major collection of Nabokov's published material, Think, Write, Speak brings together a treasure trove of previously uncollected texts from across the author's extraordinary career.Įach phase of his wandering life is included, from a precocious essay written while still at Cambridge in 1921, through his fame in the aftermath of the publication of Lolita to the final, fascinating interviews given shortly before his death in 1977. 'Masterly, hilarious, truly insightful' - Philip Hensher, The SpectatorĪ Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year 2019

List of nabokov novels