Speak, Memory: Introduction by Brian Boyd [Hardcover]

 

From one of the 20th century's great writers comes one of the finest autobiographies of our time.Speak, Memorywas first published by Vladimir Nabokov in 1951 asConclusive Evidenceand then assiduously revised and republished in 1966. The Everyman's Library edition includes, for the first time, the previously unpublished Chapter 16 –the most significant unpublished piece of writing by the master, newly released by the Nabokov estate–which provided an extraordinary insight intoSpeak, Memory.

 

Nabokov's memoir is a moving account of a loving, civilized family, of adolescent awakenings, flight from Bolshevik terror, education in England, and émigré life in Paris and Berlin. The Nabokovs were eccentric, liberal aristocrats, who lived a life immersed in politics and literature on splendid country estates until their world was swept away by the Russian revolution when the author was eighteen years old.Speak, Memoryvividly evokes a vanished past in the inimitable prose of Nabokov at his best.

"[Nabokov] has fleshed the bare bones of historical data with hilarious anecdotes and with a felicity of style that makesSpeak, Memorya constant pleasure to read. Confirmed Nabokovians will relish the further clues and references to his fictional works that shine like nuggets in the silver stream of his prose." —Harper’s

"Scintillating…One finds here amazing glimpses into the life of a world that has vanished forever." —New York TimesVladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born on April 23, 1899, in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Nabokovs were known for their high culture and commitment to public service, and the elder Nabokov was an outspoken opponent of antisemitism and one of the leaders of the opposition party, the Kadets. In 1919, following the Bolshevik revolution, he took his family into exile. Four years later he was lC$