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Nabokov's Butterflies: Unpublished and Uncollected Writings
Vladimir Nabokov was no ordinary person. His uncollected and unpublished writings, gathered together with scholarly flourish in Nabokov's Butterflies, are testament to the extent to which his imaginative works are imbued and invested with his overwhelming passion for lepidoptera, a passion nurtured from 1906, when, at the age of seven, Nabokov captured his first butterfly. In an article published in The New Yorker magazine in 1948 he mused, "It is astounding how little the ordinary person notices butterflies". Later he would "confess" his ardent enthusiasm in his memoir, Speak, Memory and, summing up his enduring passion, "I have hunted butterflies in various climes and disguises: as a pretty boy in knickerbockers and sailor cap; as a lanky cosmopolitan expatriate in flannel bags and beret; as a fat hatless old man in shorts".
The 700 pages of Nabokov's Butterflies, covering 60 years of writing and research, have been impeccably edited by his biographer Brian Boyd and Robert Michael Pyle, an expert on butterflies, and their witty, informative essays complement perfectly Nabokov's precise and erudite prose. His son Dimitri has added some new translations, most notably a 40-page addendum to The Gift Nabokov's last novel written in Russian. Though the reader may find trawling through the many pages of scientific writing something more than a labour of love, there is enough here of memoir, fragments of novellas, poems, letters, articles, diary entries (plus an appendix worthy of a mind devoted to minutiae)--thoughtfully illustrated with black and white photographs and Nabokov's own exquisite drawings--to satisfy and ultimately to astonish. --Catherine Taylor
783 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
12 people are currently reading
690 people want to read
About the author
Vladimir Nabokov
868 books15.2k followersVladimir Nabokov (Russian: Владимир Набоков) was a writer defined by a life of forced movement and extraordinary linguistic transformation. Born into a wealthy, liberal aristocratic family in St. Petersburg, Russia, he grew up trilingual, speaking Russian, English, and French in a household that nurtured his intellectual curiosities, including a lifelong passion for butterflies. This seemingly idyllic, privileged existence was abruptly shattered by the Bolshevik Revolution, which forced the family into permanent exile in 1919. This early, profound experience of displacement and the loss of a homeland became a central, enduring theme in his subsequent work, fueling his exploration of memory, nostalgia, and the irretrievable past.
The first phase of his literary life began in Europe, primarily in Berlin, where he established himself as a leading voice among the Russian émigré community under the pseudonym "Vladimir Sirin". During this prolific period, he penned nine novels in his native tongue, showcasing a precocious talent for intricate plotting and character study. Works like The Defense explored obsession through the extended metaphor of chess, while Invitation to a Beheading served as a potent, surreal critique of totalitarian absurdity. In 1925, he married Véra Slonim, an intellectual force in her own right, who would become his indispensable partner, editor, translator, and lifelong anchor.
The escalating shadow of Nazism necessitated another, urgent relocation in 1940, this time to the United States. It was here that Nabokov undertook an extraordinary linguistic metamorphosis, making the challenging yet resolute shift from Russian to English as his primary language of expression. He became a U.S. citizen in 1945, solidifying his new life in North America. To support his family, he took on academic positions, first founding the Russian department at Wellesley College, and later serving as a highly regarded professor of Russian and European literature at Cornell University from 1948 to 1959.
During this academic tenure, he also dedicated significant time to his other great passion: lepidoptery. He worked as an unpaid curator of butterflies at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology. His scientific work was far from amateurish; he developed novel taxonomic methods and a groundbreaking, highly debated theory on the migration patterns and phylogeny of the Polyommatus blue butterflies, a hypothesis that modern DNA analysis confirmed decades later.
Nabokov achieved widespread international fame and financial independence with the publication of Lolita in 1955, a novel that was initially met with controversy and censorship battles due to its provocative subject matter concerning a middle-aged literature professor and his obsession with a twelve-year-old girl. The novel's critical and commercial success finally allowed him to leave teaching and academia behind. In 1959, he and Véra moved permanently to the quiet luxury of the Montreux Palace Hotel in Switzerland, where he focused solely on writing, translating his earlier Russian works into meticulous English, and studying local butterflies.
His later English novels, such as Pale Fire (1962), a complex, postmodern narrative structured around a 999-line poem and its delusional commentator, cemented his reputation as a master stylist and a technical genius. His literary style is characterized by intricate wordplay, a profound use of allusion, structural complexity, and an insistence on the artist's total, almost tyrannical, control over their created world. Nabokov often expressed disdain for what he termed "topical trash" and the simplistic interpretations of Freudian psychoanalysis, preferring instead to focus on the power of individual consciousness, the mechanics of memory, and the intricate, often deceptive, interplay between art and perceived "reality". His unique body of work, straddling multiple cultures and languages, continues to
The first phase of his literary life began in Europe, primarily in Berlin, where he established himself as a leading voice among the Russian émigré community under the pseudonym "Vladimir Sirin". During this prolific period, he penned nine novels in his native tongue, showcasing a precocious talent for intricate plotting and character study. Works like The Defense explored obsession through the extended metaphor of chess, while Invitation to a Beheading served as a potent, surreal critique of totalitarian absurdity. In 1925, he married Véra Slonim, an intellectual force in her own right, who would become his indispensable partner, editor, translator, and lifelong anchor.
The escalating shadow of Nazism necessitated another, urgent relocation in 1940, this time to the United States. It was here that Nabokov undertook an extraordinary linguistic metamorphosis, making the challenging yet resolute shift from Russian to English as his primary language of expression. He became a U.S. citizen in 1945, solidifying his new life in North America. To support his family, he took on academic positions, first founding the Russian department at Wellesley College, and later serving as a highly regarded professor of Russian and European literature at Cornell University from 1948 to 1959.
During this academic tenure, he also dedicated significant time to his other great passion: lepidoptery. He worked as an unpaid curator of butterflies at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology. His scientific work was far from amateurish; he developed novel taxonomic methods and a groundbreaking, highly debated theory on the migration patterns and phylogeny of the Polyommatus blue butterflies, a hypothesis that modern DNA analysis confirmed decades later.
Nabokov achieved widespread international fame and financial independence with the publication of Lolita in 1955, a novel that was initially met with controversy and censorship battles due to its provocative subject matter concerning a middle-aged literature professor and his obsession with a twelve-year-old girl. The novel's critical and commercial success finally allowed him to leave teaching and academia behind. In 1959, he and Véra moved permanently to the quiet luxury of the Montreux Palace Hotel in Switzerland, where he focused solely on writing, translating his earlier Russian works into meticulous English, and studying local butterflies.
His later English novels, such as Pale Fire (1962), a complex, postmodern narrative structured around a 999-line poem and its delusional commentator, cemented his reputation as a master stylist and a technical genius. His literary style is characterized by intricate wordplay, a profound use of allusion, structural complexity, and an insistence on the artist's total, almost tyrannical, control over their created world. Nabokov often expressed disdain for what he termed "topical trash" and the simplistic interpretations of Freudian psychoanalysis, preferring instead to focus on the power of individual consciousness, the mechanics of memory, and the intricate, often deceptive, interplay between art and perceived "reality". His unique body of work, straddling multiple cultures and languages, continues to
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 19, 2022
Un libro extenso— perfecto para escapes efímeros y leer en partes.
December 25, 2023
Nabokov’s illustrations are a revelation - I’ve never seen butterflies in such detail before. The man was in love with the world, and butterflies were his fascination, both professionally and personally, both in science and in art. This book does a good job showing examples of both.
Some highlights are “Father’s Butterflies,” (previously unpublished) by Nabokov, and the Sport Illustrated interview in Sedona, AZ (published 1959) by Robert Boyle.
Father’s Butterflies is particularly interesting.
Except:
During the blaze of noon, between two sumptuous thunderstorms, the mud of Russian roads serves as a drinking establishment for the male Blues, but not every damp spot is suitable; the intensity of visitation is determined by a certain average saturation of the soil as well as the greater evenness of its surface. On an attractive spot like this, with a round, runny border and a relatively limited diameter (rarely exceeding two feet), a group of butterflies settles at close quarters; if one startles the gathering, it rises en masse and remains suspended in a "sorting" hover over the given spot on the road, descending to it anew with mathematical precision... Only the air cooling toward evening, or the arrival of clouds, puts an end to the banquet.
I have had occasion to observe the presence of one and the same specimen of Meleager's Blue sitting from eleven in the morning until a quarter to six in the evening, when the long shadow of a nearby oak had reached the very spot where, besides my friend and a few other engrossed Blues and a handful of golden adonis, there remained (from three in the afternoon) a small cluster of Black-veined Whites, whose general appearance was reminiscent either of little paper cockerels or a regatta of sailboats heeling this way and that.
In all those hours the composition and size of the gathering would vary and more than once I inadvertently shooed away my Meleager while fishing out some trifle I needed from the general heap. Now, with the onset of shade, it would soar with elastic grace and, having chosen a bough to perch on - a choice not at all typical for Lycaena in a normal state, but quite characteristic as a temporizing maneuver for a butterfly that has left a "drinking place" - would settle on a Rubus leaf, as if hoping that the dusk and the chill were but the passing influence of a cloud and that, in a moment, one could return. In a few minutes I noticed that it had dozed off; with that, the observation ended.
Some highlights are “Father’s Butterflies,” (previously unpublished) by Nabokov, and the Sport Illustrated interview in Sedona, AZ (published 1959) by Robert Boyle.
Father’s Butterflies is particularly interesting.
Except:
During the blaze of noon, between two sumptuous thunderstorms, the mud of Russian roads serves as a drinking establishment for the male Blues, but not every damp spot is suitable; the intensity of visitation is determined by a certain average saturation of the soil as well as the greater evenness of its surface. On an attractive spot like this, with a round, runny border and a relatively limited diameter (rarely exceeding two feet), a group of butterflies settles at close quarters; if one startles the gathering, it rises en masse and remains suspended in a "sorting" hover over the given spot on the road, descending to it anew with mathematical precision... Only the air cooling toward evening, or the arrival of clouds, puts an end to the banquet.
I have had occasion to observe the presence of one and the same specimen of Meleager's Blue sitting from eleven in the morning until a quarter to six in the evening, when the long shadow of a nearby oak had reached the very spot where, besides my friend and a few other engrossed Blues and a handful of golden adonis, there remained (from three in the afternoon) a small cluster of Black-veined Whites, whose general appearance was reminiscent either of little paper cockerels or a regatta of sailboats heeling this way and that.
In all those hours the composition and size of the gathering would vary and more than once I inadvertently shooed away my Meleager while fishing out some trifle I needed from the general heap. Now, with the onset of shade, it would soar with elastic grace and, having chosen a bough to perch on - a choice not at all typical for Lycaena in a normal state, but quite characteristic as a temporizing maneuver for a butterfly that has left a "drinking place" - would settle on a Rubus leaf, as if hoping that the dusk and the chill were but the passing influence of a cloud and that, in a moment, one could return. In a few minutes I noticed that it had dozed off; with that, the observation ended.
June 21, 2024
"I confess I do not believe in time"
September 17, 2008
I totally forgot I read this. Why did I read this? (it's a very thick book half on Nabokov's obsession with butterflies, and half a very scientific account on the specimen's which I DID NOT read; I read this to research monarch butterfly migrations for a screenplay, what i took from this esoteric read was that mostly maniacs collect butterflies. Duh.
Want to Read
May 26, 2007I have read a bit of it, but always put it down and then come back months later. Its the kind of book you can read in spurts. I love Vladimir Nabokov. He's an amazingly interesting figure in literary history.
March 30, 2011
A few parts were amazing and worth skimming through a lot of other parts (species descripions). Some stories were very engaging and I felt quite personally moved by. Also enjoyed his travels to various places that I was somewhat familiar with.
Read
March 30, 2009Nabokov's Butterflies: Unpublished and Uncollected Writings by Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (2000)
Want to Read
February 28, 2012This is a monster--I mean textbook style!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews