Nabokov's Speak, Memory: Tell me more...

[Betty]

a bit more--

Vladimir Nabokov's (1899-1977) actual memories in Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited begin in 1903, continuing to his emigration to America in 1940. It takes thirty years (1936-1966) for publication of the entire book. Brian Boyd, an expert about Nabokov, says, "Speak, Memory is the one Nabokov work outside his finest novels--The Gift, Lolita, Pale Fire, Ada--that is a masterpiece on their level."

[Betty]

a bit more introduction--

"Speak, Memory..." revises Nabokov's "Conclusive Evidence" (pub. 1951), as the book's subtitle hints. It covers his first forty years of life, chapters 1-12 of the 15 being set during the era of the last Russian czar. As a genre, it is nonfiction. Allowances must be made for the darkened roots of the past. A memoirist pulls up memory by the roots but can't reroot it in exactly the same way. Hence, the nonfictional autobiography is also a creative, literary act to an extent when scenes feel right in an artistic sense, when artfulness and nature (light and sensuousness, for example) make an uplifting, satisfying biography. An educated aristocrat and a noted lepidopterist (=scientist's interest in butterflies), he is also known to have enjoyed chess and art among his hobbies.

[Betty]

Nabokov leaves Russia about the time of the Bolshevik Revolution and the czar's overthrow, living in exile in Germany and France until WW2 (end of book), later in America, then in Switzerland. His extraordinary happy childhood he describes in the first part of the autobiography.

[Betty]

The Nabokov Museum is a virtual visit to Nabokov's historic home in St Petersburg, Russia. The line of tabs under the masthead access further info and exhibits about the life and works of Nabokov.

Polina Barskova's poem "Flipping Through Nabokov's Speak, Memory" (TriQuarterly, May 1, 2007, in Questia) describes the grave of his mother Elena on the "outskirts of Prague", her son's memory of her during childhood, and his response to her dying in 1939. There's a photograph of her at the museum's site.

[Betty]

To get the most from the "Speak, Memory" is to obtain a copy published by Everyman's Library or another edition which contains Brian Boyd's Introduction, a bibliography, some more photographs, a three-part Chronology, and, most importantly, the previously omitted Chapter 16, which pretends to be a review of the book by a disinterested observer. An ebook I have, which Vintage published, has not been updated.

Nabokov wrote "Speak, Memory" in English rather than Russian, so Nabokov's Author Foreword and Chapters 1-15 are probably the same as in the new updates. Speaking of the Foreword, it prominently refers to his mother, whose essay is Chapter 2, to his earliest impression of a self from about three years old, and to the waves of Russian emigrations to Berlin, to Paris, to America.

[Sue]

I just picked up that copy from the library today, Asma. I'm glad I have to "right" copy that has everything.

[Betty]

The editorial updates improve overall Nabokov's autobiography by introducing the contents and by offering further satisfying insights into it. The updates are not a necessity to the prose in Speak, Memory but round the literary life out :)

[Sue]

Thanks Asma. Your insights and updates are, as always, amazing and helpful. I've actually never read anything by Nabakov but this just sounds so appealing, even more so as Mikki and I were discussing it.

[Betty]

I recall a very memorable memoir by N about butterflies. In his Introduction of Speak Memory, Boyd thinks that The Gift is Nabokov's masterpiece.

Say "hi" to Mikki!

[Sue]

Oh, somehow anything that references butterflies always attracts me. I'll probably check into that.

Will do on the "hi".