Vladimir Nabokov Popular Books
Vladimir Nabokov Biography & Facts
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (Russian: Владимир Владимирович Набоков [vlɐˈdʲimʲɪr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ nɐˈbokəf] ; 22 April [O.S. 10 April] 1899 – 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (Владимир Сирин), was an expatriate Russian and Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Russian (1926–1938) while living in Berlin, where he met his wife. He achieved international acclaim and prominence after moving to the United States, where he began writing in English. Nabokov became an American citizen in 1945 and lived mostly on the East Coast before returning to Europe in 1961, where he settled in Montreux, Switzerland. From 1948 to 1959, Nabokov was a professor of Russian literature at Cornell University. His 1955 novel Lolita ranked fourth on Modern Library's list of the 100 best 20th-century novels in 2007 and is considered one of the greatest works of 20th-century literature. Nabokov's Pale Fire, published in 1962, ranked 53rd on the same list. His memoir, Speak, Memory, published in 1951, is considered among the greatest nonfiction works of the 20th century, placing eighth on Random House's ranking of 20th-century works. Nabokov was a seven-time finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction. He also was an expert lepidopterist and composer of chess problems. Early life and education Russia Nabokov was born on 22 April 1899 (10 April 1899 Old Style) in Saint Petersburg to a wealthy and prominent family of the Russian nobility. His family traced its roots to the 14th-century Tatar prince Nabok Murza, who entered into the service of the Tsars, and from whom the family name is derived.: 16 His father was Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov (1870–1922), a liberal lawyer, statesman, and journalist, and his mother was the heiress Yelena Ivanovna née Rukavishnikova, the granddaughter of a millionaire gold-mine owner. His father was a leader of the pre-Revolutionary liberal Constitutional Democratic Party, and wrote numerous books and articles about criminal law and politics. His cousins included the composer Nicolas Nabokov. His paternal grandfather, Dmitry Nabokov (1827–1904), was Russia's Justice Minister during the reign of Alexander II. His paternal grandmother was the Baltic German Baroness Maria von Korff (1842–1926). Through his father's German ancestry, Nabokov was related to the composer Carl Heinrich Graun (1704–1759). Vladimir was the family's eldest and favorite child, with four younger siblings: Sergey (1900–45), Olga (1903–78), Elena (1906–2000), and Kirill (1912–64). Sergey was killed in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945 after publicly denouncing Hitler's regime. Writer Ayn Rand recalled Olga (her close friend at Stoiunina Gymnasium) as a supporter of constitutional monarchy who first awakened Rand's interest in politics. Elena, who in later years became Vladimir's favorite sibling, published her correspondence with him in 1985. She was an important source for later biographers of Nabokov. Nabokov spent his childhood and youth in Saint Petersburg and at the country estate Vyra near Siverskaya, south of the city. His childhood, which he called "perfect" and "cosmopolitan", was remarkable in several ways. The family spoke Russian, English, and French in their household, and Nabokov was trilingual from an early age. He related that the first English book his mother read to him was Misunderstood (1869) by Florence Montgomery. Much to his patriotic father's disappointment, Nabokov could read and write in English before he could in Russian. In his memoir Speak, Memory, Nabokov recalls numerous details of his privileged childhood. His ability to recall in vivid detail memories of his past was a boon to him during his permanent exile, providing a theme that runs from his first book Mary to later works such as Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle. While the family was nominally Orthodox, it had little religious fervor. Vladimir was not forced to attend church after he lost interest. In 1916, Nabokov inherited the estate Rozhdestveno, next to Vyra, from his uncle Vasily Ivanovich Rukavishnikov ("Uncle Ruka" in Speak, Memory). He lost it in the October Revolution one year later; this was the only house he ever owned. Nabokov's adolescence was the period in which he made his first serious literary endeavors. In 1916, he published his first book, Stikhi ("Poems"), a collection of 68 Russian poems. At the time he was attending Tenishev school in Saint Petersburg, where his literature teacher Vladimir Vasilievich Gippius had criticized his literary accomplishments. Some time after the publication of Stikhi, Zinaida Gippius, renowned poet and first cousin of his teacher, told Nabokov's father at a social event, "Please tell your son that he will never be a writer." After the 1917 February Revolution, Nabokov's father became a secretary of the Russian Provisional Government in Saint Petersburg. October Revolution After the October Revolution, the family was forced to flee the city for Crimea, at first not expecting to be away for very long. They lived at a friend's estate and in September 1918 moved to Livadiya, at the time under the separatist Crimean Regional Government, in which Nabokov's father became a minister of justice. University of Cambridge After the withdrawal of the German Army in November 1918 and the defeat of the White Army in early 1919, the Nabokovs sought exile in western Europe, along with other Russian refugees. They settled briefly in England, where Nabokov gained admittance to the University of Cambridge, one of the world's most prestigious universities, where he attended Trinity College and studied zoology and later Slavic and Romance languages. His examination results on the first part of the Tripos exam, taken at the end of his second year, were a starred first. He took the second part of the exam in his fourth year just after his father's death, and feared he might fail it. But his exam was marked second-class. His final examination result also ranked second-class, and his BA was conferred in 1922. Nabokov later drew on his Cambridge experiences to write several works, including the novels Glory and The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. At Cambridge, one journalist wrote in 2014, "the coats-of-arms on the windows of his room protected him from the cold and from the melancholy over the recent loss of his country. It was in this city, in his moments of solitude, accompanied by King Lear, Le Morte d'Arthur, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde or Ulysses, that Nabokov made the firm decision to become a Russian writer." Career Berlin (1922–1937) In 1920, Nabokov's family moved to Berlin, where his father set up the émigré newspaper Rul' ("Rudder"). Nabokov followed them to Berlin two years later, after completing his studies at Cambridge. In March 1922, Russian monarchists Pyotr Shabelsky-Bork and Sergey Taboritsky shot and killed Nabokov'.... Discover the Vladimir Nabokov popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Vladimir Nabokov books.
Best Seller Vladimir Nabokov Books of 2024
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Vladimir Nabokov
Professor Norman Page & Norman PageThis set comprises of 40 volumes covering nineteenth and twentieth century European and American authors. These volumes will be available as a complete set, mini boxed sets (by th...
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Kubrick
Robert P. Kolker & Nathan AbramsThe definitive biography of the creator of 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, and A Clockwork Orange, presenting the most indepth portrait yet of the groundbreaking filmmaker.The ...
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The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir NabokovFrom the writer who shocked and delighted the world with his novels Lolita, Pale Fire, and Ada, or Ardor, and so many others, comes a magnificent collection of stories. Writte...
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Pnin
Vladimir NabokovOne of the bestloved of Nabokov’s novels, Pnin features his funniest and most heartrending character. Serialized in The New Yorker and published in book form in 1957, Pn...
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The Secret History of Vladimir Nabokov
Andrea PitzerA startling and revelatory examination of Nabokov’s life and worksnotably Pale Fire and Lolitabringing new insight into one of the twentieth century’s most enig...
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The Outsider
Jonathan Wilson & Jonathan Wilson Ltd'The everreadable Wilson explores the psychological pressures of being cast in the role of the scapegoat ... Thoughtprovoking and full of interesting detail ... this book scores on...
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Eileen
Ottessa MoshfeghNow a major motion picture, starring Anne Hathaway and Thomasin McKenzieShortlisted for the Man Booker Prize“Eileen is a remarkable piece of writing, always dark and surprisin...
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Selected Poems of Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov & Thomas KarshanThough we know Vladimir Nabokov as a brilliant novelist, his first love was poetry. This landmark collection brings together the best of his verse, including many pieces that have ...
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The Collected Plays of Anton Chekhov
Anton ChekhovThis carefully crafted ebook: "The Collected Plays of Anton Chekhov" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Excerpt: "In each ...
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Christmas at The New Yorker
The New Yorker, E. B. White, Sally Benson & S.J. PerelmanFrom the pages of America’s most influential magazine come eight decades of holiday cheerplus the occasional comical coal in the stockingin one incomparable collection. Sublime an...
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Shriver
Chris BeldenSoon to be a major motion picture A Little White Lie starring Michael Shannon and Kate Hudson!In this charming, clever, and darkly satiric novel set at a writers’ conference, one m...
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The Little Demon
Fyodor Sologub & Ronald WilksA dark classic of Russia's silver age, this blackly funny novel recounts a schoolteacher's descent into sadism, arson and murder.Mad, lascivious, sadistic and ridiculous, the provi...
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Pale Fire
Vladimir NabokovA darkly comic novel of suspense, literary idolatry and oneupmanship, and political intrigue from one of the leading writers of the twentieth century, the acclaimed author of Lolit...
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Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life
Yiyun LiIn her first memoir, awardwinning novelist Yiyun Li offers a journey of recovery through literature: a letter from a writer to likeminded readers. “A meditation on the fact that li...
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Vladimir Nabokov and the Art of Moral Acts
Dana DragunoiuWinner, 2022 Brian Boyd Prize for Best Second Book on NabokovThis book shows how ethics and aesthetics interact in the works of one of the most celebrated literary stylists of the ...
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Vladimir
Julia May JonasAn NPR, Washington Post, Time, People, Vulture, Guardian, Vox, Kirkus Reviews, Newsweek, LitHub, and New York Public Library Best Book of the Year “Delightful…cathartic, devious, ...
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Insomniac Dreams
Vladimir Nabokov & Gennady BarabtarloNabokov's dream diary, published for the first timeand placed in biographical and literary contextOn October 14, 1964, Vladimir Nabokov, a lifelong insomniac, began a curious exper...
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The Feud
Alex BeamThe Feud is the deliciously ironic (and sad) tale of how two literary giants destroyed their friendship in a fit of mutual pique and egomania.In 1940, Edmund Wilson was the undispu...
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The Modern Library
Carmen Callil & Colm TóibínFor Colm Toíbín and Carmen Callil there is no difference between literary and commercial writing there is only the good novel: engrossing, inspirational, compelling. In their sele...
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My Dark Vanessa
Kate Elizabeth RussellINSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “[An] exceedingly complex, inventive, resourceful examination of harm and power.” The New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice“A lightning...
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The Best Russian Plays and Short Stories by Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Gorky, Gogol and many more
Nicholas Evrèinov, Denis Von Visin, Anton Chekhov, Alexander Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, I.S. Turgenev, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, M.Y. Saltykov, V.G. Korolenko, V.N. Garshin, F.K. Sologub, I.N. Potapenko, ST Semyonov, Maxim Gorky, L.N. Andreyev, M.P. Artzybashev & A.I. KuprinThis carefully crafted ebook: "The Best Russian Plays and Short Stories by Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Gorky, Gogol and many more" is formatted for your eReader with a fu...
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The Gift
Vladimir NabokovConsidered by many to be the greatest Russian novel of the twentieth century. An interweaving of the effects of life and memory, tradition and heritage, upon art, the b...
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The Best Works of Anton Chekhov
Anton ChekhovMusaicum Books presents to you this carefully created collection of Anton Chekhov's greatest works. This ebook has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards ...
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The Big Book of Classic Fantasy
Ann VanderMeer & Jeff VanderMeerA FINALIST FOR THE 2020 WORLD FANTASY AWARD Unearth the enchanting origins of fantasy fiction with a collection of tales as vast as the tallest tower and as mysterious as the...
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Vladimir Nabokov
Barbara WyllieBest known for his deeply controversial 1955 novel, Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov (18991977) is celebrated as one of the most distinctive literary stylists of the twentieth century. In ...
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Praise of Folly
Desiderius Erasmus & Betty RadiceErasmus of Rotterdam (c. 14661536) is one of the greatest figures of the Renaissance humanist movement, which abandoned medieval pieties in favour of a rich new vision of the indiv...
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The Gilded Chalet
Padraig RooneyPart detective work, part treasure chest, full of history and scandal, The Gilded Chalet takes you on a grand tour of two centuries of great writing by both Swiss and foreign autho...
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Vladimir Nabokov
Paul D. MorrisVladimir Nabokov (18991977), the eminent RussianAmerican writer and intellectual, is best known for his novels, though he was also the author of plays, poems, and short stories. In...
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Read Dangerously
Azar NafisiThe New York Times bestselling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran returns with a guide to the power of literature in turbulent times, arming readers with a resistance reading list,...
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Lolita
Vladimir NabokovThe most famous and controversial novel from one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century tells the story of Humbert Humbert’s obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for ...
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The Annotated Lolita
Vladimir NabokovNabokov's wise, ironic, and elegant masterpiece. A controversial love story almost shocking in its beauty and tenderness. This annotated edition assiduously illumi...
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Gargantua and Pantagruel
Francois Rabelais & M. A. ScreechThe dazzling and exuberant moral stories of Rabelais (c. 14711553) expose human follies with their mischievous and often obscene humour, while intertwining the realistic with carni...