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Vladimir Nabokov #1
Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years
This first major critical biography of Vladimir Nabokov, one of the greatest of 20th-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 U.S.This volume stands on its own as a fascinating exploration of Nabokov's Russian years and Russian worlds, pre-revolutionary and emigre. In the course of his 10 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research on Nabokov's life and art, as he dates and describes the composition of all Nabokov's works, published and unpublished.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 andhis 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.
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research on Nabokov's life and art, as he dates and describes the composition of all Nabokov's works, published and unpublished.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 andhis 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.
619 pages, Paperback
First published August 22, 1990
28 people are currently reading
1743 people want to read
About the author
Brian Boyd
61 books54 followersBrian David Boyd is a University Distinguished Professor at the University of Auckland and a preeminent scholar best known for his definitive work on Vladimir Nabokov. After earning his PhD from the University of Toronto, Boyd was invited by Véra Nabokov to catalogue her husband's archives, leading to his award-winning, two-volume biography, The Russian Years and The American Years. His scholarship on Nabokov remains prolific, encompassing numerous edited volumes, verse translations, and the digital project AdaOnline. Beyond his expertise in Russian literature, Boyd is a pioneer in the field of "biopoetics," exploring the intersections of literature, evolution, and cognition. His landmark book, On the Origin of Stories, argues that storytelling is a biological adaptation rooted in play, applying evolutionary criticism to works ranging from Homer to Dr. Seuss. A versatile intellectual, he has also tackled the biography of philosopher Karl Popper and co-curated major exhibitions on the origins of art. In 2020, his contributions to the humanities were recognized with the Rutherford Medal, the Royal Society Te Apārangi’s highest honor.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
December 22, 2009
No author had more occasion to become "the voice of his era" than Nabokov, and one of his great achievements is resolutely avoiding that role and following undeterred his own muse. Born in 1899, he was truly a child of the twentieth century, and almost every major upheaval that affected Europe in the first half of that century as well affected him, until he quit the continent and fled France with Hitler's hounds hot on his heels and found relative security in America and the English language. Even then his life did not settle in any normal sense of the word, though relative stability, in great contrast to the poverty and transience of his early adult years in Berlin and Paris, did finally find himself and Véra and Dmitri in the new world (a world that also made possible his eventual return to Europe and a kind of reclamation of his pilfered past). His whole life was somehow uncannily preparing him for this exact move to America and transition to a career as an English prose writer. From St. Petersburg, where he was born into a fabulously wealthy Anglophile family (his father played an important role in Russian liberal politics from before the 1905 revolution and on into the Russian emigre community that was centered in Berlin in the 1920's- a life that warrants a biography of its own) and the luxury of an idyllic youth so lovingly explored in Speak,Memory- the arbors of Vyra, his first encounters with literature and lepidoptera, the influence especially his father was to have on his life and fate- to Crimea escaping the Bolshevik terror, and the family's final flight from Russia via the Yalta harbor under machine gun spray, and then throughout the almost two decades in Europe where the young poet became the rising star of emigre literature, the play of what seems to be the hand of fate touches Nabokov's life just when events seem to be sliding into utter collapse and ruin. During the revolutions, the wars, the exile, Nabokov focused his energies on developing his gift, remained obedient to his destiny and his muse, and each circumstance of history that seemed an apparent obstruction actually served to expand Nabokov's art, though, in many cases, severely limiting his physical means. I can think of perhaps no other author who adhered so closely to his own vision despite the turmoil history was attempting to hurl at him. No wonder then his novels of this time come to be kinds of "thought experiments" on these problems: the inaccessibility of the past and the caprice of memory; the role of fate in life; the intricacies of consciousness as it encounters reality; the glories of particularity, individuality, variety; the redemptive power of imagination in a hostile world.
Though it certainly cannot be said that the epoch did not find seams and fissures to seep through and invade his work, ultimately, the great creator of worlds outmaneuvered the great destroyers of worlds. His Berlin novels took as a point of departure the emigre experience but never relinquished the mantle of strangeness and the unique psychological labyrinths that elevate the works beyond simple descriptions of a social milieu into the realms of the metaphysical. His European stories, novels, and plays grew into a sort of testing of an individual character's consciousness against the limits or structures of a reality or a superimposed reality. Boyd's criticism of Nabokov's works is fabulous. Coming away from it, one begins to see Nabokov as the last Romantic, or some Romantic of space-time, whose works are idylls or inverse idylls or worlds within worlds that all adhere to a wonderfully textured realism draped over a complex superstructure. And though Nabokov's works are particular worlds unto themselves, everywhere within them are the refracted images of the people, places and successive stages of history on which his life played out, inverted or made grotesque, distorted in a mirror or converted into the afterlife of thought or art. As Europe was disintegrating about him, Nabokov's cities and structures were becoming ever stronger and more invigorated with life, culminating with the composition of The Gift, which, as Boyd so compellingly argues, was that era's masterpiece and gave birth to Nabokov's next thirty years of work.
There is also the story of his love for Véra, who was to become his closest ally in life and art, his typist and editor, the mother of his child, and lifelong companion in all of the varied settings they found themselves thrown. But the true subject and hero of Boyd's book is Nabokov's art, his devotion to exploring the richness of human imagination, and the creative impulse and what that urge implies about our existence. Boyd suggests that at the heart of Nabokov's work is the idea that our creative nature is something of an echo of a further volition working at things, unseen because of the limits inherent in human consciousness. Through art, through the flexing and stressing of a state of being, Nabokov is attempting to push through these invisible walls, to project humanity beyond the human, and to explore the immense variety and chance that go into composing even the most mundane human moment, and the perception of that moment- in short, "the marvel of consciousness- that sudden window swinging open on a sunlit landscape amidst the night of non-being."
On a personal note, the Boyd biography, combined with The Gift and a rereading of Lolita, have culminated into my favorite reading experiences of the year (and this was a year particularly shining with gems), so I hope to be excused if Nabokov dominates my "currently-reading" shelf for some time to come. I can think of no better way to enter 2010 than with a new literary obsession.
Though it certainly cannot be said that the epoch did not find seams and fissures to seep through and invade his work, ultimately, the great creator of worlds outmaneuvered the great destroyers of worlds. His Berlin novels took as a point of departure the emigre experience but never relinquished the mantle of strangeness and the unique psychological labyrinths that elevate the works beyond simple descriptions of a social milieu into the realms of the metaphysical. His European stories, novels, and plays grew into a sort of testing of an individual character's consciousness against the limits or structures of a reality or a superimposed reality. Boyd's criticism of Nabokov's works is fabulous. Coming away from it, one begins to see Nabokov as the last Romantic, or some Romantic of space-time, whose works are idylls or inverse idylls or worlds within worlds that all adhere to a wonderfully textured realism draped over a complex superstructure. And though Nabokov's works are particular worlds unto themselves, everywhere within them are the refracted images of the people, places and successive stages of history on which his life played out, inverted or made grotesque, distorted in a mirror or converted into the afterlife of thought or art. As Europe was disintegrating about him, Nabokov's cities and structures were becoming ever stronger and more invigorated with life, culminating with the composition of The Gift, which, as Boyd so compellingly argues, was that era's masterpiece and gave birth to Nabokov's next thirty years of work.
There is also the story of his love for Véra, who was to become his closest ally in life and art, his typist and editor, the mother of his child, and lifelong companion in all of the varied settings they found themselves thrown. But the true subject and hero of Boyd's book is Nabokov's art, his devotion to exploring the richness of human imagination, and the creative impulse and what that urge implies about our existence. Boyd suggests that at the heart of Nabokov's work is the idea that our creative nature is something of an echo of a further volition working at things, unseen because of the limits inherent in human consciousness. Through art, through the flexing and stressing of a state of being, Nabokov is attempting to push through these invisible walls, to project humanity beyond the human, and to explore the immense variety and chance that go into composing even the most mundane human moment, and the perception of that moment- in short, "the marvel of consciousness- that sudden window swinging open on a sunlit landscape amidst the night of non-being."
On a personal note, the Boyd biography, combined with The Gift and a rereading of Lolita, have culminated into my favorite reading experiences of the year (and this was a year particularly shining with gems), so I hope to be excused if Nabokov dominates my "currently-reading" shelf for some time to come. I can think of no better way to enter 2010 than with a new literary obsession.
March 6, 2023
The book is a must read to everyone who is interested in the life and work of Vladimir Nabokov. I especially was impressed by his interpretations of the writer's works. And I immensely enjoyed reading the whole long chapter devoted to Nabokov as a writer meticulously analysing the pecularities of his incredible style, his themes, his world outlook and his philosophy.
I was also glad to read that, in the author's opinion, my favourite Nabokov's novel 'The Gift' (one of the greatest Russian novels of the 20th century) determined the ideas for the writer's works for thirty years to come.
Now I'm getting ready to read 'Vladimir Nabokov. American Years' but in order to get most of it I will have to re-read 'Lolita' and read other Nabokov's American works.
I was also glad to read that, in the author's opinion, my favourite Nabokov's novel 'The Gift' (one of the greatest Russian novels of the 20th century) determined the ideas for the writer's works for thirty years to come.
Now I'm getting ready to read 'Vladimir Nabokov. American Years' but in order to get most of it I will have to re-read 'Lolita' and read other Nabokov's American works.
September 3, 2007
When am I not consulting the Boyds? For me, Nabokov is the most congenial of all 20th century literary artists. But even without that, I would admire him for the fact that he surmounted all wordly barriers to the expression of his gift, to the achievement of his oeuvre. He let nothing overcome him--not exile, not the switch to English in early middle age; as Updike has said, Nabokov bore "the secret of an ebullient creativity." A congenial artist, and a personal hero.
October 30, 2022
Pretty great. Fascinating pre-American life. You can visit his father’s beautiful mansion in St. Petersburg to get a sense of why the man always felt such self-confidence. Not sure why I haven’t read the second half of the biography yet. I guess I just can’t see it measuring up to his life in Russia, England, Germany, etc. Some themes: Growing up rich. Father’s prominence and assassination. Elite English education. Early novels. Russian diaspora. Czechoslovakian trips. Jewish wife. Butterfly obsession. Etc.
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March 9, 2015This is the story of an artist in perpetual flight from one tragically disappearing world to another. A quintessentially 20th century author whose art has been reduced by some to mere pompous trickery though it in fact contains an immense appreciation for the beauty of nature and the creativity of the human spirit while addressing several core recurrent themes: space, time, the limits and limitlessness of human consciousness, memory, and loss.
Boyd has combined in this slim volume(!) an in-depth glimpse into the author's, at times, death defying trek through the travails of early 20th century Eurasia and a comprehensive course on each of the major works of Nabokov's Russian period. It's at once a stirring portrait of a man and of his art. Herein we encountered the author's childhood tutors, his various pupils, a string of lovers and adversaries, and are treated to as well to an exposition on the progression of his literary talents from his youthful verse to his mature prose, on his use of transition, color, nature, on his inversion of personal experience in his art, on his major career arcing themes, and on how in certain instances his life had no choice but to imitate his art.
In contrast to the fairly popular belief concerning Nabokov, this piece paints a striking portrait of an incredibly likable, thoughtful, loving, and fiercely individual man - you would want to be friends with this man. Nevertheless, Boyd remains objective in his appraisal of Nabokov's art, demonstrating an a number of occasions a willingness to deem certain of Nabokov's novels and stories flat out failures.
An incredibly essential piece for any enthusiast or scholar, perhaps not very useful for those just starting out on Nabokov's works (because of the depth to which Boyd analyzing each of the major works of VN's early period - verse, stories, novels, plays, etc. This is one of the highlights however for the enthusiast).
Boyd has combined in this slim volume(!) an in-depth glimpse into the author's, at times, death defying trek through the travails of early 20th century Eurasia and a comprehensive course on each of the major works of Nabokov's Russian period. It's at once a stirring portrait of a man and of his art. Herein we encountered the author's childhood tutors, his various pupils, a string of lovers and adversaries, and are treated to as well to an exposition on the progression of his literary talents from his youthful verse to his mature prose, on his use of transition, color, nature, on his inversion of personal experience in his art, on his major career arcing themes, and on how in certain instances his life had no choice but to imitate his art.
In contrast to the fairly popular belief concerning Nabokov, this piece paints a striking portrait of an incredibly likable, thoughtful, loving, and fiercely individual man - you would want to be friends with this man. Nevertheless, Boyd remains objective in his appraisal of Nabokov's art, demonstrating an a number of occasions a willingness to deem certain of Nabokov's novels and stories flat out failures.
An incredibly essential piece for any enthusiast or scholar, perhaps not very useful for those just starting out on Nabokov's works (because of the depth to which Boyd analyzing each of the major works of VN's early period - verse, stories, novels, plays, etc. This is one of the highlights however for the enthusiast).
August 23, 2014
Pretty much everything you'd want in a Nabokov biography. It's comprehensive and as hyper-detailed as N's fiction. It's also very much a critical biography and there's almost as much literary commentary as there is information about his life. Every story, play and novel gets at least a rudimentary write-up (and generally much more in the case of the novels) and they're very well done and illuminating. Boyd finds so many layers in N's fiction that I felt myself feeling a intellectually dwarfed by the both of them. They're also self contained and would make great afterwords to future reprintings of N's novels. I think Boyd occasionally overwrites and seems to try a bit too hard to capture N's style in his own prose, though that's pretty much my only criticism. Well, also I didn't find it wholly absorbing, but it did do a lot to deeper my understanding of N's art and made me want to re-read all his books.
And I'm sure it goes without saying, but a two-volume, 1000+ page biography of Nabokov is for big fans only. To newer readers I imagine it would seem like overkill.
And I'm sure it goes without saying, but a two-volume, 1000+ page biography of Nabokov is for big fans only. To newer readers I imagine it would seem like overkill.
February 27, 2017
Auch wenn die Lektüre schon eine Volljährigkeit zurückliegt, erinnere ich mich noch sehr gut, wie beeindruckt ich von Brian Boyds Fleiß, Liebe und Verständnis war.
Wie schön, dass er einen Leser gefunden hat, der genauso entdeckungsfreudig wie er selbst ist, und der ihm in seinem Essay DIE SPÄHER ein wunderbares Lob zukommen läßt, in dem es u.a. heißt:
"Boyd ist ein Phänomen, schon was den Fleiß angeht. Als armer Student pflegte er tagsüber in der Bibliothek das Nabokov-Material herauszusuchen, das er nachts in einem Greyhoundbus bearbeitete, für den er eine Dauerkarte hatte und der ihm als fahrendes Motel dienen mußte. Später wurden die Reisen umständlicher; auf der Suche nach einer einzigen fehlenden Nummer einer russischen Zeitung durchstöberte er Archive in zehn Städten zwischen Helsinki und Palo Alto. Überflüssig zu sagen, daß mindestens ein kleines Schweizer Wäldchen nötig war für die Papiermenge, die seine Nachforschungen und Korrespondenzen mit Zeitzeugen verschlagen. Und doch ist das erstaunlichste an seiner Biographie nicht eiinmal die Akkuratesse, mit der er Nabokov in seine Zeit einbettet. Noch erstaunlicher ist, daß der Wühler auch noch lesen kann."
(Diese Greyhoundbus-Geschichte läßt mich an die Legende denken, dass Nabokov selbst einen seiner Romane auf einem Koffer geschrieben haben soll, den er in einem engen Hotelzimmer über das Bidet legte.)
Der, der Boyd so lobt, ist einer meiner Lieblingskritiker, Michael Maar, und den ganzen Artikel kann man nachlesen in Die Glühbirne der Etrusker: Essays und Marginalien.
Wie schön, dass er einen Leser gefunden hat, der genauso entdeckungsfreudig wie er selbst ist, und der ihm in seinem Essay DIE SPÄHER ein wunderbares Lob zukommen läßt, in dem es u.a. heißt:
"Boyd ist ein Phänomen, schon was den Fleiß angeht. Als armer Student pflegte er tagsüber in der Bibliothek das Nabokov-Material herauszusuchen, das er nachts in einem Greyhoundbus bearbeitete, für den er eine Dauerkarte hatte und der ihm als fahrendes Motel dienen mußte. Später wurden die Reisen umständlicher; auf der Suche nach einer einzigen fehlenden Nummer einer russischen Zeitung durchstöberte er Archive in zehn Städten zwischen Helsinki und Palo Alto. Überflüssig zu sagen, daß mindestens ein kleines Schweizer Wäldchen nötig war für die Papiermenge, die seine Nachforschungen und Korrespondenzen mit Zeitzeugen verschlagen. Und doch ist das erstaunlichste an seiner Biographie nicht eiinmal die Akkuratesse, mit der er Nabokov in seine Zeit einbettet. Noch erstaunlicher ist, daß der Wühler auch noch lesen kann."
(Diese Greyhoundbus-Geschichte läßt mich an die Legende denken, dass Nabokov selbst einen seiner Romane auf einem Koffer geschrieben haben soll, den er in einem engen Hotelzimmer über das Bidet legte.)
Der, der Boyd so lobt, ist einer meiner Lieblingskritiker, Michael Maar, und den ganzen Artikel kann man nachlesen in Die Glühbirne der Etrusker: Essays und Marginalien.
October 8, 2009
I have to say that reading 1400-1500 pages of both volumes of Boyd's biography takes stamina, especially if the subject is personally so repellant as Nabakov - a man with a class A narcissistically disordered personality. But having said that, Boyd's work is a masterpiece of literary biography. He couples both the biographical narrative with the best criticism and interpretation of Nabakov's books available. In fact, I'm wondering why he didn't select certain chapters and piece together another book entitled: Nabakov's Short Fiction and Novels. I would never have completed the two volumes had VN's fiction been any less interesting than it is or Boyd's criticism any less penetrating and intriguing.
As for Vn as a young man. I can only say that he must have been altogether insufferable - a pampered, coddled, cosseted and spoiled scion of the high aristocracy, who also inherited one of Imperial Russia's largest fortunes at the age of 17. Just imagine. But he lost everything except the hauteur, which he cultivated with a vengence until he drew his very last breath.
As for Vn as a young man. I can only say that he must have been altogether insufferable - a pampered, coddled, cosseted and spoiled scion of the high aristocracy, who also inherited one of Imperial Russia's largest fortunes at the age of 17. Just imagine. But he lost everything except the hauteur, which he cultivated with a vengence until he drew his very last breath.
July 15, 2011
This biography and literary study is well-researched, but, in my opinion, Boyd makes several errors as a result of being too close to his subject. First, he entirely too forgiving, or willing to overlook, Nabokov's personal and political flaws. True, everyone is human, and there is always room for a little understanding sympathy. But traits such as Nabokov's paranoid homophobia, which makes his brother's death in a concentration camp all the more tragic, paint V. Nabokov in a very unsympathetic light. He was as prejudiced in this way as the Nazis and his brother's memory cannot have been well-served by Nabokov's stupid prejudice. Nabokov's fundamental misunderstanding of Marx, as well, is all too apparent, albeit more understandable because of his exposure to the Leninist version of Marx. Finally, Boyd makes what I take to be several fundamental misreadings of Nabokov's texts themselves. Some of his readings are, indeed, insightful. But to fail to see the similarities between Fyodor in _The Gift_, for example, and Humbert in _Lolita_ is to miss a very fine layer of complexity in Nabokov's body of work. Of course, I may be misreading Nabokov, and I certainly don't have access to the sources Boyd had; but if Boyd's reading of the texts is correct, than that just highlights the unsavory character the subject of this book was. Good fiction writer, but I wouldn't want him dating my daughter.
December 7, 2020
Lovingly written and meticulously researched by someone who is clearly a superfan, with Vera's consent and occasional contribution. Boyd does go on in excruciating detail about everything, even the minor short stories and plays, which can be exhausting. Curiously, he does not attempt to resolve the apparent contradiction (to my mind, at least) of . Overall very readable as a biography; provides priceless insights into Nabokov's early life, rough patches, and milieu. As a work of literary criticism, Boyd's own ideas of what constitute the themes of VN's vast body of work are rather few and repetitive.
March 6, 2017
One of the best biographies I've read. Extremely well researched and written. You can tell how much love and attention to detail has gone into the book from the fact that the header has the year (LH header) and VN's age (RH header) on every page. I can't believe it is so hard to get a copy of this book in the UK. Hopefully I won't have to wait too long for Volume 2.
January 23, 2021
Mr. Boyd, well done! My "Nabokov" shelf will happily be joined by this biography. The first quarter was a little bit of a struggle for me; V.D. Nabokov took over, and while that history is interesting in its own right, my personal interests lie less in the politics of the time (at least in that level of excruciating detail) and more on Vladimir Nabokov himself and his works (which we get in spades once we pass childhood, happily!).
It was wonderful to read the criticism for each novel, poem, play, and short story and pick up on things I never would have noticed or thought of in a certain way. I'm not sure Boyd always hit the mark, but I enjoyed all of the attempts. The Gift especially is one novel I truly struggled to get through intact, and I think a reread with these addition insights will be very rewarding.
I just acquired a lovely book of Nabokov's poetry (his poetry is the one thing I haven't read...); I have this idea I would love to read/reread everything again, but in the order it was written, this time. Wouldn't that be something?
I remember the day I picked up that disastrous, overly marked, perfectly bendable copy of Lolita (little stockinged feet on the cover) from a thrift store and that was the day (for a lack of a better way to put it): "You came into my life-not as one comes to visit (you know, “not taking one’s hat off”) but as one comes to a kingdom where all the rivers have been waiting for your reflection, all the roads, for your steps."
It was wonderful to read the criticism for each novel, poem, play, and short story and pick up on things I never would have noticed or thought of in a certain way. I'm not sure Boyd always hit the mark, but I enjoyed all of the attempts. The Gift especially is one novel I truly struggled to get through intact, and I think a reread with these addition insights will be very rewarding.
I just acquired a lovely book of Nabokov's poetry (his poetry is the one thing I haven't read...); I have this idea I would love to read/reread everything again, but in the order it was written, this time. Wouldn't that be something?
I remember the day I picked up that disastrous, overly marked, perfectly bendable copy of Lolita (little stockinged feet on the cover) from a thrift store and that was the day (for a lack of a better way to put it): "You came into my life-not as one comes to visit (you know, “not taking one’s hat off”) but as one comes to a kingdom where all the rivers have been waiting for your reflection, all the roads, for your steps."
March 21, 2020
I got this book, and it's accompanying American volume, by accident from a book club I belonged to to get a free new, at the time, translation of Proust. The club had a usual deal where each month you'd get a notice of the monthly selection and the recipient would have to send in an order not to send it or it would be shipped (surely a win/win with the postal service). Either I didn't send it back or decided to let it be the purchase that satisfied the terms of getting the initial freebie. Whatever the reason I figured I'd read it one of these days and 30 years later mission accomplished.
This is a very good biography. It's not an "official biographer", whatever that means, but the family approved of him doing it and gave him access to everything at their disposal including information about an affair he carried on that was oddly at odds with how he otherwise carried on his life (and caused him feelings of guilt for quite a while, some of it carried into his fiction imo). In notes at the end of The Enchanter by son Dmitri, he makes reference to Boyd preparing a "literary biography".
As I was reading this i was concurrently reading the short stories and full length novels which I believe added a level of appreciation that would otherwise be lacking. I had previously not read his fiction originally written in Russian so this has been an eye opener. Boyd's commentary on them is outstanding even when I don't completely agree (I thought The Gift, while a major work, was unduly incomprehensibly complex; and complexity is usually a Nabokovian plus for me). I will proceed directly to the American volume.
This is a very good biography. It's not an "official biographer", whatever that means, but the family approved of him doing it and gave him access to everything at their disposal including information about an affair he carried on that was oddly at odds with how he otherwise carried on his life (and caused him feelings of guilt for quite a while, some of it carried into his fiction imo). In notes at the end of The Enchanter by son Dmitri, he makes reference to Boyd preparing a "literary biography".
As I was reading this i was concurrently reading the short stories and full length novels which I believe added a level of appreciation that would otherwise be lacking. I had previously not read his fiction originally written in Russian so this has been an eye opener. Boyd's commentary on them is outstanding even when I don't completely agree (I thought The Gift, while a major work, was unduly incomprehensibly complex; and complexity is usually a Nabokovian plus for me). I will proceed directly to the American volume.
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August 21, 2017This is the first volume of the authoritative 2 volume biography of one of the most brilliant writers of the last hundred years, produced by the distinguished Nabokov's scholar.
Covering the first 40 years of Nabokov's life and his Russian works, this volume contains a treasure of context that would be entirely useless for a good (in the Nabokov's sense) reader of his novels.
For some bizarre reason, Boyd concludes that every Nabokov novel and most of his stories follow basically the same pattern, that in the ultimate analysis each of them can be decoded as some kind of M. R. Jamesque ghost story, where spectres of departed guide inept still surviving characters toward their (rather simplistic as ghosts go) ends. With varying degree of violence this analytical method is fearlessly applied to The Defence, The Eye, The Gift and The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. One cannot escape a grave suspicion that with Pale Fire and Ada apparitions will have a field day in the second volume.
As another famous biographer noted "for better or worse, it is the commentator who has the last word", but the author of these words would probably find it artistically justified that it might be the dead VN's shadow that guides the awkward pen to prove again that mimicry is beyond predator's powers of perception.
PS: on a more technical level, neither the first volume (in the text) nor the second (in the index) mention Harold Nicolson and his "Some people"---a missing link without which the genesis of Nabokov's English style remains incomprehensible.
Covering the first 40 years of Nabokov's life and his Russian works, this volume contains a treasure of context that would be entirely useless for a good (in the Nabokov's sense) reader of his novels.
For some bizarre reason, Boyd concludes that every Nabokov novel and most of his stories follow basically the same pattern, that in the ultimate analysis each of them can be decoded as some kind of M. R. Jamesque ghost story, where spectres of departed guide inept still surviving characters toward their (rather simplistic as ghosts go) ends. With varying degree of violence this analytical method is fearlessly applied to The Defence, The Eye, The Gift and The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. One cannot escape a grave suspicion that with Pale Fire and Ada apparitions will have a field day in the second volume.
As another famous biographer noted "for better or worse, it is the commentator who has the last word", but the author of these words would probably find it artistically justified that it might be the dead VN's shadow that guides the awkward pen to prove again that mimicry is beyond predator's powers of perception.
PS: on a more technical level, neither the first volume (in the text) nor the second (in the index) mention Harold Nicolson and his "Some people"---a missing link without which the genesis of Nabokov's English style remains incomprehensible.
April 29, 2018
Vladimir Nabokov remains one of my favorite writers. After reading all his early Russian novels I thought it would be interesting to learn about his life and the conception of his novels. Nabokov had a very interesting life. He grew up in Russia during years of tumultuous political change and left as Bolshevism was growing to more legitimate heights. Then he settled in Germany until Hitler's rise to power became a threat. After destitution in France and the beginning of the second World War Nabokov and his family finally flee to America. While the historical eras he lived through were fascinating, the bookworm in me loved seeing his fiction detailed chronologically and analyzed in depth. It gave new background and understanding to the books I'd already read. Brian Boyd does a great job critiquing Nabokov's works and explaining their relation in his life. This volume analyzes novels from Mary to The Real Life Of Sebastian Knight and all the short stories in between. The rest of his novels and stories will be contained in the second volume. I'm excited to finish reading his English language novels and then continue with the second biography volume: The American Years. I'd recommend this biography for avid Nabokov fans and readers who enjoy literary criticism.
November 12, 2018
This volume stands on its own as a fascinating exploration of Nabokov's Russian years and Russian worlds, pre-revolutionary and emigre. In the course of his 10 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 andhis innovations of literary strategy and style.
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 andhis innovations of literary strategy and style.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2019
Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years is an incredibly packed account, a complex look at the great Russian-American author's life and beliefs, filled with stories and analyses from the first 40 years of Vladimir Nabokov's life—his childhood in Russia, his refugee life in the Crimea, his emigre life in Berlin and Paris and finally, at the very end of this first volume by Brian Boyd, aboard the last possible ship to leave Nazi-threatened Paris.
I should say upfront, as if the other reviewers haven't made this clear yet, this biography is not for the fair-weather fans of Nabokov. It provides a sometimes unimaginable amount of information on things that the general public (i.e. readers of only Lolita) never wants to know. Some of these stories that Boyd includes I already knew from reading other biographies, autobiographies, and of course Nabokov's semi-autobiograpical-but-not novels themselves; but the at-times tiring details Boyd includes leave me with that much more of an appreciation of all of Nabokov's pieces of writing, big or small. Nabokov, is, of course, one of my all-time favorite authors, and Boyd's biography was a clear indication that Nabokov seemed to feel he was predestined to become a writer of literary fiction (among other things) despite any distractions or hardships. His attention to his work tops anything I've ever focused on—ever. (Okay, perhaps an exaggeration. But it sure seems like it after reading this book.)
Thankfully, unlike other biographies of Nabokov I've read, Boyd's language here was beautiful, a fitting homage to a man who wrote some of the most beautiful sentences I've ever read. despite its density and length, I was enthralled by almost all of this book, and now my reading list for all things Nabokov has grown infinitely longer.
The Russian Years covers Nabokov's birth in 1899 to his final departure from Europe in spring of 1940 as the Nazis were closing in on Paris. The entire early childhood period of Vladimir's life was astounding to me. Trying to imagine Nabokov as a child is already amusing, but Boyd made his childhood in St. Petersburg and Vyra come to life. He was such a precocious child and his obsessions and quirks shone in this volume. Throughout his life Nabokov denied that he had specific influences on his writing, but it's clear through his childhood that there were a lot of things that he carried with him emotionally that made their way into his books later.
Along that line, though, after knowing some of these stories of Nabokov's life, i wanted more personal details. Boyd included information about Nabokov's childhood that was well-rounded in different ways, including peeks into his personal life, but these died out a bit as the book reached Nabokov's adulthood. But then again, considering that his wife, Vera, (along with their son Dmitri) was still alive when this book was published and she was a very private person, I understand why there aren't more personal stories in here. But I wanted to hear more about Nabokov's personal hopes and fears especially in such a turbulent time in Europe: even though we already know, of course, how things end up, the tension did not abate while I was reading about how the Nabokovs were able to survive when things became dangerous in both Berlin and Paris. Even still, I wanted to know more from Nabokov himself. (For instance: how Vladimir viewed his brother's, Sergey's, homosexuality, and how he felt being both fairly poor and worried about the future of europe in the late 1930s. both of these topics are at least broached, but not sufficiently enough for my liking.)
I did learn, however, so much more about Vladimir's relationship to his father, a revolutionary leader who is fascinating in his own right. I already knew that relationship and the elder Nabokov's untimely, violent death shaped his son's life profoundly, but I wasn't aware just how profoundly. Vladimir was already interested in death and consciousness as concepts and themes for stories, but after 1922 he delved so much deeper into it. Seeing Boyd connect that event to so much else in his life was fascinating—although I suppose it's hard to tell how much Nabokov actually felt that way versus what Boyd is including in his own interpretations of it.
The only thing about The Russian Years that made me cringe a little bit was how much literary analysis there was of seemingly ever single story Nabokov ever published as he was honing his writing skills. Of course Nabokov's life was inseparable from his books, so a biography should include some of both, but I really only wanted to hear about his life, rather than detailed analyses of books and stories—many of which, admittedly, I haven't read yet. But even for those books I have read, Boyd's analysis seemed like it would be better suited as two separate books sometimes, when there would be whole chapters just about a particular book from Boyd's perspective, rather than the preferred insight from Vladimir or Vera Nabokov themselves, or any critics of the time in which the works were published. As a former English major—former in the sense that I got frustrated with that area of study and gave up on it—I found it a bit insufferable at times, although I certainly have to acknowledge Boyd's deep commitment to knowing all the ins and outs of Nabokov's works. For me, although I would consider myself a Nabokov superfan, it was even too much.
If you're a Nabokov superfan and have read enough of his stories and books, The Russian Years is a fantastic addition to understanding his writing. I'm looking forward to reading more about his American years, Boyd's next volume.
I should say upfront, as if the other reviewers haven't made this clear yet, this biography is not for the fair-weather fans of Nabokov. It provides a sometimes unimaginable amount of information on things that the general public (i.e. readers of only Lolita) never wants to know. Some of these stories that Boyd includes I already knew from reading other biographies, autobiographies, and of course Nabokov's semi-autobiograpical-but-not novels themselves; but the at-times tiring details Boyd includes leave me with that much more of an appreciation of all of Nabokov's pieces of writing, big or small. Nabokov, is, of course, one of my all-time favorite authors, and Boyd's biography was a clear indication that Nabokov seemed to feel he was predestined to become a writer of literary fiction (among other things) despite any distractions or hardships. His attention to his work tops anything I've ever focused on—ever. (Okay, perhaps an exaggeration. But it sure seems like it after reading this book.)
Thankfully, unlike other biographies of Nabokov I've read, Boyd's language here was beautiful, a fitting homage to a man who wrote some of the most beautiful sentences I've ever read. despite its density and length, I was enthralled by almost all of this book, and now my reading list for all things Nabokov has grown infinitely longer.
The Russian Years covers Nabokov's birth in 1899 to his final departure from Europe in spring of 1940 as the Nazis were closing in on Paris. The entire early childhood period of Vladimir's life was astounding to me. Trying to imagine Nabokov as a child is already amusing, but Boyd made his childhood in St. Petersburg and Vyra come to life. He was such a precocious child and his obsessions and quirks shone in this volume. Throughout his life Nabokov denied that he had specific influences on his writing, but it's clear through his childhood that there were a lot of things that he carried with him emotionally that made their way into his books later.
Along that line, though, after knowing some of these stories of Nabokov's life, i wanted more personal details. Boyd included information about Nabokov's childhood that was well-rounded in different ways, including peeks into his personal life, but these died out a bit as the book reached Nabokov's adulthood. But then again, considering that his wife, Vera, (along with their son Dmitri) was still alive when this book was published and she was a very private person, I understand why there aren't more personal stories in here. But I wanted to hear more about Nabokov's personal hopes and fears especially in such a turbulent time in Europe: even though we already know, of course, how things end up, the tension did not abate while I was reading about how the Nabokovs were able to survive when things became dangerous in both Berlin and Paris. Even still, I wanted to know more from Nabokov himself. (For instance: how Vladimir viewed his brother's, Sergey's, homosexuality, and how he felt being both fairly poor and worried about the future of europe in the late 1930s. both of these topics are at least broached, but not sufficiently enough for my liking.)
I did learn, however, so much more about Vladimir's relationship to his father, a revolutionary leader who is fascinating in his own right. I already knew that relationship and the elder Nabokov's untimely, violent death shaped his son's life profoundly, but I wasn't aware just how profoundly. Vladimir was already interested in death and consciousness as concepts and themes for stories, but after 1922 he delved so much deeper into it. Seeing Boyd connect that event to so much else in his life was fascinating—although I suppose it's hard to tell how much Nabokov actually felt that way versus what Boyd is including in his own interpretations of it.
The only thing about The Russian Years that made me cringe a little bit was how much literary analysis there was of seemingly ever single story Nabokov ever published as he was honing his writing skills. Of course Nabokov's life was inseparable from his books, so a biography should include some of both, but I really only wanted to hear about his life, rather than detailed analyses of books and stories—many of which, admittedly, I haven't read yet. But even for those books I have read, Boyd's analysis seemed like it would be better suited as two separate books sometimes, when there would be whole chapters just about a particular book from Boyd's perspective, rather than the preferred insight from Vladimir or Vera Nabokov themselves, or any critics of the time in which the works were published. As a former English major—former in the sense that I got frustrated with that area of study and gave up on it—I found it a bit insufferable at times, although I certainly have to acknowledge Boyd's deep commitment to knowing all the ins and outs of Nabokov's works. For me, although I would consider myself a Nabokov superfan, it was even too much.
If you're a Nabokov superfan and have read enough of his stories and books, The Russian Years is a fantastic addition to understanding his writing. I'm looking forward to reading more about his American years, Boyd's next volume.
July 22, 2024
About halfway through, Boyd republishes an essay on Nabokov's art. This chapter should be required reading for any student who wants to understand the depth of VN's prose. Apparently, he puts it here so that the reader may keep these thoughts in mind as Boyd critiques his novels from this point on.
Boyd is not an objective observer. He unapologetically praises VN at every turn, so the reader should perhaps consult other sources for criticism.
4.5 stars.
Boyd is not an objective observer. He unapologetically praises VN at every turn, so the reader should perhaps consult other sources for criticism.
4.5 stars.
February 1, 2025
Was für ein Buchmonster, ein Biografiemonster ist Boyd hier gelungen – dabei ist das nur der russische Teil dieser zweibändigen Nabokov Biografie. Es ist unglaublich wieviel Material, Namen, Orte, Begegnungen, Familienbegebenheiten, politische Hintergründe und noch vieles mehr Boyd hier zusammengetragen hat. Dazu noch die Analyse und Besprechung der Werke samt Entstehungsprozess welche in dieser Zeit entstanden sind – einfach unglaublich. Solch eine Bio habe ich noch nicht gelesen, großartig.
dnf
June 14, 2019DNF. I've spent years trying to get through this book a bit at a time and finally realized it stopped being interesting like 200 pages ago when Nabokov's father died. This book is for Nabokov scholars and fanboys only. Life is too short for the rest of us to bother with this book.
October 18, 2017
Way too gushy and overdoses on the overwrought lit crit.
May 2, 2019
Superlatives required for this stupendous bio!
December 4, 2019
just started it. he was kind of hot. five stars.
June 22, 2021
The most comprehensive biography of Nabokov's Russian years.
May 20, 2010
Brian Boyd’s biography of Vladimir Nabokov is meticulously researched and unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon, if at all. In some ways, that’s unfortunate. While this is a foundational and necessary text for anyone who wants a deep understanding of Nabokov’s work, Boyd’s attitude towards his subject is often distractingly worshipful. Some of the faults stemming from this approach include Boyd’s tendency to make something of a show of criticizing obviously weak early work (presumably as an assertion of balance), and his irritating habit of gratuitously pointing out minor features (occasionally exaggerated) of early stories and novels that he claims anticipate developments in Joyce’s work, or were at least arrived at by Nabokov independently, supposedly free of Joyce’s influence. Nabokov’s reputation hardly needs boosts of this kind. Boyd also lapses into Nabokovianisms every now and again, which is grating, and appears to have internalized his subject to such an extent that there can be no real pretence of objectivity.
Although logistically necessary to gain access to Nabokov’s private papers and those held at the Library of Congress (access to which has been restricted by the estate until 2009), Boyd’s cooperation with the notoriously private Vera Nabokov and the pugnaciously protective Dmitri Nabokov raises questions as to how complete and objective this biography can really be. Although Boyd asserts his scholarly independence in his preface, the Nabokovs were very wary of biographers, particularly after having been burned by the rather strange Andrew Field, whose pseudo-scholarly, error-riddled, and sometimes bizarre critical and biographical work outraged the family.
The two volumes together are over 1,000 pages, so casual readers of Nabokov might find it a bit of a slog. Boyd is, however, an astute reader of Nabokov, and all the novels (along with many of the stories, plays, poems, essays, and so forth) are given critical attention, which makes this something more than a conventional biography. For anyone whose interest is strong enough, this is the best biography out there by far, regardless of its weaknesses.
Although logistically necessary to gain access to Nabokov’s private papers and those held at the Library of Congress (access to which has been restricted by the estate until 2009), Boyd’s cooperation with the notoriously private Vera Nabokov and the pugnaciously protective Dmitri Nabokov raises questions as to how complete and objective this biography can really be. Although Boyd asserts his scholarly independence in his preface, the Nabokovs were very wary of biographers, particularly after having been burned by the rather strange Andrew Field, whose pseudo-scholarly, error-riddled, and sometimes bizarre critical and biographical work outraged the family.
The two volumes together are over 1,000 pages, so casual readers of Nabokov might find it a bit of a slog. Boyd is, however, an astute reader of Nabokov, and all the novels (along with many of the stories, plays, poems, essays, and so forth) are given critical attention, which makes this something more than a conventional biography. For anyone whose interest is strong enough, this is the best biography out there by far, regardless of its weaknesses.
October 24, 2014
Well, it took awhile, but I enjoyed the first volume of Brian Boyd's two-volume biography of the great Russian emigre-American writer. Unlike Andrew Field's terrible bio, Boyd successfully reveals Nabokov's unique consciousness with great sympathy and clarity. In addition, the book reveals his travails following the Russian Revolution, including the murder of his beloved father by Russian Rightists (who were later promoted up the Nazi hierarchy by Hitler). This book does a great job of providing historical context to Nabokov's life. Long before LOLITA, Nabokov was writing great books, though he received nowhere near the recognition of other authors of the day, such as Fitzgerald, Joyce, Hemingway, Steinbeck and others. Whatever legacy he was building failed to reach much beyond the Russian emigre community in Europe, which was destroyed by World War II. When he and wife, Vera, and his son, Dimitri, fled for the U.S. in 1940 (with the Nazis right on their heels), he become, once again, an obscure writer. It would be a long road back.
October 28, 2014
Tremendously well-researched and astute analysis from Boyd. A very thorough account of not only Vladimir Nabokov's life from 1899-1940, but a detailed illustration of his family ancestry and particularly his father's life, which gives more insight into the political aspects of Nabokov's work. The analysis is generally spot-on and very insightful as well, showing recurring patterns and themes in each specific work. However, I am sometimes annoyed by Boyd's complete worshiping of Nabokov. Boyd consistently tries to defend Nabokov at every turn and overemphasizes the importance of his Russian work (like concluding that "The Gift" is considered the greatest Russian novel of the 20th century by some scholars) and downplays Nabokov's homophobia which is a prominent theme (but was excluded from analysis in this biography) in both Despair and The Real Life of Sebastian Knight.
February 3, 2008
Being one of the West Coast's most fervent non-academic Nabokov nuts, I knew I had to get around to the two-volume Boyd biography eventually. I set aside a good two weeks for it, but it ended up only taking a few days. Lord, this is engrossing stuff. I've always been a big reader of literary biographies, and this is up there w/the greats (Ellmann's Joyce, Troyat's Dostoevsky, etc.). An absolute must for Nabo fanatics. An excellent companion piece is Stacy Schiff's VERA (which delves deeper into the dirt than the notoriously insular Nabokov's would have liked, but never does so in a tawdry, tabloid fashion).
April 6, 2012
I really enjoyed it. The book combines typical biography fare and critical interpretation of his Russian language works. Both parts are well written and presented in great depth. Since I haven't read the Russian works, the critical aspect was less interesting to me, but I appreciated that it was there. The interest of the biography half was significantly aided by his life, which was pretty action packed during this period - fleeing the Russian Revolution, assassins leaping out of crowds, duels, romance, fleeing Nazis, dachshunds - all very exciting.
July 20, 2019
Brian Boyd has written the definitive biography of Vladimir Nabokov, the greatest author of the 20th century. This is the first volume of two and it covers Nabokov's youth in Russia, the Berlin years, and in the late 1930s, the move to France - until the moment they board the ship to the United States. The strong point of the book is, that it is much more than a biography: it also contains detailed and perceptive commentaries on all Nabokov's writings, leading to an enhanced understanding and enjoyment for the reader. Indispensable for Nabokov fans.
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