Promotional Information

This is the first comprehensive account of Nabokov's life and oeuvre. The book's wide-ranging research and deep affinity for Nabokov's writings should establish it as the single indispensable source on its subject for many decades to come. -- Simon Karlinsky, University of California, Berkeley

Table of Contents

*Frontmatter, pg. i*CONTENTS, pg. ix*List of Illustrations, pg. xi*Note on Dates, pg. xiii*Introduction, pg. 1*1. Liberal Strains: The Pattern of the Past, pg. 13*2. A World Awakening: St. Petersburg, 1899-1904, pg. 37*3. First Revolution and First Duma: St. Petersburg, 1904-1906, pg. 54*4. Butterflies: St. Petersburg, 1906-1910, pg. 68*5. School: St. Petersburg, 1911-1914, pg. 86*6. Lover and Poet: Petrograd, 1914-1917, pg. 110*7. Foretaste of Exile: Crimea, 1917-1919, pg. 136*8. Becoming Sirin: Cambridge, 1919-1922, pg. 161*9. Regrouping: Berlin, 1922-1923, pg. 196*10. Enter the Muse: Berlin, 1923-1925, pg. 212*11. Scenes from Emigre Life: Berlin, 1925-1926, pg. 241*12. Ideas Away: Berlin, 1927-1929, pg. 270*13. Nabokov the Writer, pg. 292*14. The Defense (Zashchita Luzhina), pg. 321*15. Negative and Positive: Berlin, 1929-1930, pg. 341*16. Bright Desk, Dark World: Berlin, 1930-1932, pg. 362*17. Distant Prospects: Berlin, 1932-1934, pg. 382*18. Translation and Transformation: Berlin, 1934-1937, pg. 408*19. On the Move: France, 1937, pg. 432*20. The Gift (Dar), pg. 447*21. Destitute: France, 1938-1939, pg. 479*22. Searching for an Exit: France, 1939-1940, pg. 503*Acknowledgments, pg. 525*Notes, pg. 533*Index, pg. 583

About the Author

Brian Boyd is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of English at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is the author of the prize-winning Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years (Princeton 1990), Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years (Princeton 1991), and Nabokov's Ada: The Place of Consciousness. Referred to in a recent journal as "the great man of Nabokov studies," he has also edited Nabokov's English novels and autobiography for the Library of America and Nabokov's Butterflies for Beacon Press.

Reviews

One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1991 "Mr. Boyd has a remarkable gift for drawing life and literature together...[What he does] in this impressive biography reveals to us a Nabokov who has been far too little known... As a biography [Boyd's] book can hardly be surpassed. It is a definitive life of the man and a superbly documented chronicle of his time."--Sergei Davydov, The New York Times Book Review "A terrific biography: intelligent, compulsively readable, indispensable. Brian Boyd brings to his work a passionate scholarship comparable to that in Nabokov's own encyclopedic edition of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. You just can't do better than that."--Michael Dirada, the Washington Post Book World "To the short list of outstanding literary biographies in our time there must now be added another remarkable achievement... Brian Boyd had a great story to tell, and he has told it superbly."--Hilton Kramer, The Wall Street Journal "Boyd has many qualities which mark him as Nabokov's natural biographer."--Jane Grayson, The Times Literary Supplement