Letters to Véra

It feels intrusive and a little bit embarrassing reading these letters, especially having heard that Véra Nabokov was a person who valued her privacy, but I guess it’s okay since both the author and recipient of the letters (and even their son) are dead. Like all the characters in Lolita and Ada. Anyway, these letters, mostly about everyday events and circumstances, are characterized by an ecstatically joyful appreciation of nearly everything and everyone, all described with the author’s legendary originality and amazing creative facility of language and imagery. He seemed such a happy person who loved life.

An ode to love. Absolutely charming. Nabokovian wordplay to delight. Drawings and crossword puzzles, accounts of expenditures and meals and clothing, daily activities, characterizations of others. All provide a glimpse into the personality of this extraordinary individual.

I chip away at it from time to time -- i dated a vera and thought she was my writer companion -- alas life gave me a kinder gentler more beautiful and mature beauty of timeless countenance temperance gravitas grace bust breast face hand and lol why am I sharing this? just to say this book is a key stone in my collection of letters, a must. and I am moved to help the champions who organized this edition. thank you.

These letters reveal a side of Nabokov seldom if ever seen by the reading public; and get us closer to a sense of the real man behind all the persona he adopted in his fiction and also in most of his interviews actually. But we only get half the correspondence here because Vera saw fit to destroy or at least not publish her side of the letters- there is a huge Nabokov family archive so only they know what other papers exist that haven't been printed. Worth a look if you want to see the man stripped of some his pretension.

This is just the perfect glimpse into the life of such a dynamic writer. The prose and poems he wrote to Vera seem to be effortlessly written and so poignant. It is well translated.

Given Nabokov's penchant for creating a fictitious persona to present to the world, his early letters are a rare glimpse of the man before he has achieved wealth, fame, and a polished facade. These letters to Vera, small masterpieces, are a rare gift. This review should come with a warning: I'm highly conflicted about the works of Vladimir Nabokov. In a college class I was once asked to read a selection of paragraphs by various famous authors, without knowing the authors' actual names. I loved all of the selections with the exception of one hideously overwrought landscape description, that was clearly pure kitsch. To this day I despise the source of the quote: Nabokov's "Lolita." Yet one of my all time favorite books is his "Speak Memory." Another is "The Gift." How could the same writer produce both styles? When I read Brian Boyd's masterful biography of Nabokov, I loved volume 1 about Nabokov the Russian writer, and hated volume 2 about Nabokov the American novelist. Not because of Boyd, but because of the subject. After achieving wealth and fame with "Lolita," Nabokov's self presentations in interviews are particularly egregious: dishonest, arrogant, and great fun to read. Nabokov delighted in hoaxes, doubles, mimicry, and disguises. So I'm grateful that Brian Boyd, with his wealth of knowledge about the "real" Nabokov, was willing to work with the translator Olga Voronina on annotating Nabokov's "Letters to Vera," his fiercely devoted wife. While fact-oriented, Boyd is still dutifully respectful of both the author and his wife. Michael Maar's "Speak, Nabokov," is a useful antidote to the usual hagiography. Maar was the first to point out the obscure German work by Lichberg that foreshadows "Lolita" in terms of subject matter and title. Not the object of direct plagiarism, but a surprising source for an author who claimed not to know the German language. Is learning about the man from his letters a breach of privacy? Even the early letters were definitely intended to be kept and reread. In fact, he altered his style after re-reading some of the first letters to Vera. Some observations worked their way into his poetry.(p. 248/716) He once visualized what the correspondence with look like as a published volume, and chided Vera that her part would look too small, she should write more. He was self-aware that letters by a writer have special interest. He expected them to be read by German censors at the very least, and used a pseudonym for himself and coded language in certain passages. I don't think this volume represents an invasion of privacy. Anything compromising has been destroyed already by the vigilant Vera herself. The letters make many things clear, that contradict later protestations: yes, he understood German. He was delighted to be called the new Rilke.(p.236) Yes, he enjoyed music. He used numerous musical references.(p.23, p. 102) No, his marriage was not totally "cloudless." He was quite capable of lying to Vera about his encounters with others. (letters from 1937.) I once talked with Nina Berberova about him. She was one of the early readers who discovered his genius when he was a penniless emigre poet giving readings in Paris. She was not overly fond of Vera, and she felt that Nabokov was hiding things. Some of his early personality, the personality that enchanted Berberova comes through in the first part of this volume. There is an endearing lightness in the letters written before 1940. Some have a Rilke-like inflection: "All the rivers have been waiting for your reflection." (p. 8)Often still boyish, he speculates that heaven will be boring as smoking is forbidden, but the angels smoke in secret. When the archangel is looking, they flick the cigarettes away--that's what falling stars are.... Perhaps in a riff on Omar's famous loaf of bread, bottle of wine and thou, "I need so little: a bottle of ink, a speck of sun on the floor --and you" (p. 35)I won't cite all of my favorite lines, always best for readers to encounter them unexpectedly. I hope this is enough to indicate that finding the "real" Nabokov, under all those self-protective layers--is worth the effort.

What a touching book! Such strong love is shown in the letters between the two. I reccomend the book to evryone.

Such a stunning book. Nice and heavy, feels and looks well made, got this as a gift for a friend. She absolutely loves it and keeps sending me pictures of excerpts. Really gorgeous.