Letters to Véra

by Vladimir Nabokov

  Chronology

  In order to situate the letters to Véra quickly in time, the following Chronology offers only: (1) key dates in the lives of Nabokov and his immediate family; (2) the dates of his novels and autobiography (and the titles of their translations, where important in the letters); and, with most precision, (3) the dates when VN and Véra Slonim/VéN were separated long enough for VN to send VéN more than a single letter.

  Bold italics indicate a departure of either from the other’s location (or departure and return in a single short trip); bold roman indicates a return. A line break precedes each departure or follows each return.

  1870 Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov (VDN) born.

  1876 Elena Ivanovna Rukavishnikov born.

  1897 VDN and Elena Rukavishnikov (EN) marry.

  1899, 23 April VLADIMIR VLADIMIROVICH NABOKOV (VN) BORN IN ST PETERSBURG.

  1900 Sergey Vladimirovich Nabokov born.

  1902, 5 January VÉRA EVSEEVNA SLONIM (LATER VéN) BORN IN ST PETERSBURG.

  1903 Olga Vladimirovna Nabokov born (later married name Shakhovskoy, then Petkevich).

  1906 Elena Vladimirovna Nabokov born (later married name Skulyari, then Sikorski).

  1911 Kirill Vladimirovich Nabokov born.

  1917 February and October Russian Revolutions; Nabokovs flee at end of year to Crimea.

  1919, April Nabokovs flee to Greece and then (May) London.

  1919, October VN goes up to Cambridge (Trinity College), Sergey to Oxford.

  1920 VDN takes wife and younger children to Berlin, then the centre of the Russian emigration, and founds and edits Russian liberal daily, Rul’.

  1921 VN, who has published since 1916 under his own name, now begins to publish as V(ladimir) Sirin.

  1922, 28 March VDN assassinated by Russian right-wingers.

  1922, June VN completes Cambridge BA and joins family in Berlin.

  1923, January Svetlana Siewert’s family force end of her engagement to VN.

  1923, 8 May VN meets Véra Slonim at émigré charity ball in Berlin.

  1923, May VN heads to Solliès-Pont (Var), in the south of France, to work as farm labourer.

  1923, c.18 August VN returns to Berlin and meets Véra in September on her return from vacation.

  1923, c.29 December VN travels with family to help them settle into Prague.

  1924, 27 January VN returns to Berlin.

  1924, 12–28 August VN joins mother in Prague and Dobĭrichovice, Czechoslovakia.

  1925, 15 April VN AND VÉRA SLONIM MARRY IN BERLIN.

  1925, c. 16 August VN accompanies his pupil Aleksandr (Shura) Sack to the Pomeranian beach resort of Zoppot, then on a walking tour through southern Germany (Freiburg and Schwarzwald).

  1925, 4 September VéN joins VN and Shura Sack in Konstanz.

  1926, 1 June–c. 21 July VéN sent to sanatoria in Germany’s Schwarzwald for her health (depression, anxiety, weight loss).

  1926 Novel Mashen’ka (Mary) published

  1926, 22–26 December VN visits his family in Prague.

  1928 Novel Korol’, dama, valet (King, Queen, Knave) published.

  1929 Novel Zashchita Luzhina (The Defence; La Course du fou) begins serial publication.

  1930, 12–25 May VN travels to Prague to visit his family and give public reading.

  1930 Novella Soglyadatay (The Eye) published serially.

  1931 Novel Podvig (Glory) published serially.

  1932, c. 3–20 April VN visits his family in Prague

  1932, May Novel Kamera obskura (Camera Obscura, Laughter in the Dark) begins serial publication.

  1932, October VN and VéN join cousin Nicolas Nabokov and his wife Nathalie for two weeks in Kolbsheim, near Strasbourg; VéN returns to Berlin on 13 October; VN heads on 18 October to Paris, by now the centre of the Russian emigration, for Russian and French literary readings, contacts and contracts, and returns via Belgium.

  1932, c. 28 November VN returns to Berlin.

  1934 Novel Otchayanie (Despair; La Méprise) published serially.

  1934, 10 May DMITRI VLADIMIROVICH NABOKOV (DN) BORN IN BERLIN.

  1935 Novel Priglashenie na kazn’ (Invitation to a Beheading) begins serial publication.

  1936, 21 January– 29 February VN travels to Brussels and (on 29 January) to Paris for literary readings and contacts.

  1936, c. 9–c. 22 June VéN and DN spend holiday with Anna Feigin, on Anna’s visit to her cousins in Leipzig.

  1937, 18 January After Sergey Taboritsky, one of the assassins of VDN, is appointed as Hitler’s deputy director of Russian émigré affairs, VéN insists that VN leaves Germany; he heads first for Brussels, then (22 January) to Paris, for readings and to set up the family’s move to France.

  1937, February VN begins affair in Paris with Russian émigrée Irina Guadanini.

  1937, c. 17 February VN travels to London for readings, contacts and contracts and job prospects.

  1937, 1 March VN returns to Paris.

  1937, April Novel Dar (The Gift) begins serial publication.

  1937, 6 May VéN and DN escape Germany and join EN in Prague.

  1937, 22 May VN rejoins VéN, DN and his mother in Prague; from there VN, VéN and DN travel to Franzensbad (now Františkovy Lázně), Czechoslovakia.

  1937, 17 June VN travels to Prague for reading and to arrange trip from Czechoslovakia to France.

  1937, 23 June VN and VéN reunite in Marienbad (now Mariánské Lázně) and travel to Paris on 30 June.

  1937, July Nabokovs settle in Cannes, France; VN admits to affair, VéN forces him to decide, and he chooses her.

  1937, c. 9 September Irina Guadanini visits Cannes, against VN’s wishes; VN asks her to leave; the affair definitively ends.

  1937, October Nabokovs move to Menton, France.

  1938, July Nabokovs move to Moulinet, above Menton, VN captures butterfly he will name Lysandra cormion.

  1938, August Nabokovs move to Cap d’Antibes, France.

  1938, October Nabokovs move to Paris.

  1939, 2–23 April VN travels to London for English and Russian readings, contacts, contracts, and in hope of position as Russian lecturer.

  1939, 2 May Mother (EN) dies in Prague.

  1939, 31 May–14 June VN travels to London for publishing and lecturing prospects.

  1940, 28 May After months of trying to escape France, VN, VéN and Dmitri arrive in New York, where they settle.

  1941, 15 March–2 April VN leaves for two weeks of guest lectures at Wellesley College, Massachusetts.

  1941, September VN begins one-year resident lectureship in comparative literature at Wellesley (where family now lives) and begins volunteer work at Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology.

  1941 Novel The Real Life of Sebastian Knight published.

  1942, September Nabokovs move to Cambridge, Massachusetts. VN on annual Russian-language teaching contract at Wellesley and annual lepidopterological research fellow contract at Harvard’s MCZ.

  1942, 30 September–12 December VN leaves on whistle-stop lecturing tour: in October in South, in November in Midwest, in December to Farmville, Virginia.

  1944, 1–15 June VéN takes DN to New York for appendicitis operation.

  1945, c.8–11 February VN travels to Baltimore to give lecture.

  1947 Novel Bend Sinister published.

  1948, January VN begins serial publication of his autobiography, mostly in New Yorker.

  1948 VN appointed professor of Russian literature at Cornell.

  1951 Autobiography Conclusive Evidence (US) / Speak, Memory (UK) published.

  1952 Novel Dar (The Gift) published.

  1954, c.16–22 April VN travels to Lawrence, Kansas, to give lectures.

  1955 Novel Lolita published in Paris.

  1957 Novel Pnin published.

  1958 Lolita published in US and elsewhere.

  1959 In the wake of Lolita’s success, VN resigns from Cornell and travels with VéN to Europe.

  1961 VN and VéN move into Mont
reux Palace Hotel, Montreux, Switzerland.

  1962 Novel Pale Fire published.

  1969 Novel Ada published.

  1970, 4 April VN travels on vacation to Taormina, Sicily, ahead of VéN.

  1970, c.13 April VéN joins him there.

  1972 Novel Transparent Things published.

  1974 Novel Look at the Harlequins! published.

  1977, 2 July VN DIES IN HOSPITAL IN LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND, AFTER TWO YEARS OF ILLNESS.

  1991, 7 April VÉN DIES IN VEVEY HOSPITAL.

  2012, 22 February DN DIES.

  Bibliography

  ARCHIVES

  Biblioteka-Fond ‘Russkoe Zarubezhie’, Moscow.

  Irina Guadanini Papers. Private collection (Tatyana Morozov).

  Vladimir Nabokov Archive, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, New York Public Library, New York, NY.

  Vladimir Nabokov Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

  Vladimir and Véra Nabokov Papers (transcripts and photocopies) and Audiotapes. Private collection (Brian Boyd).

  Zinaida Shakhovskoy Papers, Amherst Center for Russian Culture, Amherst College, Amherst, MA.

  Zinaida Shakhovskoy Papers, Library of Congress, Washington DC.

  WORKS BY VLADIMIR NABOKOV

  Ada oder Das Verlangen, trans. Uwe Friesel and Marianne Therstappen. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1974.

  Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969.

  Ada ou l’ardeur, trans. Gilles Chahine with Jean-Bernard Blandenier. Paris: Fayard, 1975.

  L’aguet: nouvelle inédite [Soglyadatay; The Eye: Unpublished Novella], trans. Denis Roche. Œuvres libres, 164, February 1935.

  Anya v Strane chudes [trans. of Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland] Berlin: Gamayun 1923.

  Bend Sinister (1947), reprinted with introduction by VN. New York: Time, 1964.

  Camera Obscura [Kamera obskura], trans. Winifred Roy. London: John Long, 1936.

  Chambre Obscure [Kamera obskura], trans. Doussia Ergaz. Paris: Grasset, 1934.

  Conclusive Evidence: A Memoir. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1951.

  La Course du fou [Zashchita Luzhina; The Defence], trans. Denis Roche. Paris: Fayard, 1934.

  Dar [The Gift]. New York: Chekhov Publishing House, 1952.

  Dear Bunny, Dear Volodya: The Nabokov–Wilson Letters, 1940–1971, ed. Simon Karlinsky (1979); rev. edn, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001.

  The Defense (Zashchita Luzhina, La Course du fou, The Luzhin Defence). Trans. Michael Scammell with VN. New York: Putnam, 1964.

  Despair [Otchayanie], trans. Vladimir Nabokov. London: John Long, 1937; rev. edn, New York: Putnam, 1966.

  Drugie berega [Conclusive Evidence]. New York: Chekhov Publishing House, 1954.

  ‘Entretien avec Vladimir Nabokov’ by Pierre Dommergues, Les Langues modernes, 62 (January–February 1968), pp. 92–102.

  Eugene Onegin, by Alexander Pushkin, trans. with commentary by Vladimir Nabokov, 4 vols; rev. edn,. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975.

  The Eye [Soglyadatay], trans. Dmitri Nabokov with Vladimir Nabokov. New York: Phaedra, 1965.

  Frühling in Fialta: Dreiundzwanzig Erzählungen [Spring in Fialta: Thirty-one Stories], ed. Dieter E. Zimmer, trans. Wassili Berger, Dieter E. Zimmer, Renate Gerhardt and René Drommert. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1966.

  The Gift [Dar], trans. Michael Scammell [and Dmitri Nabokov] with Vladimir Nabokov. New York: Putnam, 1963; New York: Vintage, 1991.

  Glory [Podvig], trans. Dmitri Nabokov with Vladimir Nabokov. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971.

  Gorniy put’ [The Empyrean Path]. Berlin: Grani, 1923.

  Grozd’ [The Cluster]. Berlin: Gamayun, 1923.

  Han som spelade schack med livet [Zashchita Luzhina; The Defence], trans. Ellen Rydelius. Stockholm: Bonnier, 1936.

  Invitation to a Beheading [Priglashenie na kazn’], trans. Dmitri Nabokov with Vladimir Nabokov. New York: Putnam, 1959.

  Kamera obskura [Laughter in the Dark]. Berlin and Paris: Parabola, 1933.

  King, Queen, Knave [Korol’, dama, valet], trans. Dmitri Nabokov with Vladimir Nabokov. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1968.

  König, Dame, Bube [Korol’, dama, valet; King, Queen, Knave], trans. Siegfried von Vegesack. Berlin: Ullstein, 1930.

  Korol’, dama, valet [King, Queen, Knave]. Berlin: Ullstein, 1928.

  Laughter in the Dark [Kamera obskura]. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1938.

  Lectures on Literature, ed. Fredson Bowers. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980.

  Lectures on Russian Literature, ed. Fredson Bowers. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981.

  Lolita. New York: Putnam, 1958.

  Look at the Harlequins! New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974.

  The Man from the USSR and Other Plays, ed. and trans. Dmitri Nabokov. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich/Bruccoli Clark, 1984.

  Mashen’ka [Mary]. Berlin: Slovo, 1926.

  La Méprise [Otchayanie; Despair], trans. Marcel Stora. Paris: Gallimard, 1939.

  The Nabokov–Wilson Letters: Correspondence between Vladimir Nabokov and Edward Wilson, 1940–1971, ed. Simon Karlinsky. New York: Harper & Row, 1979.

  Nabokov’s Butterflies: Unpublished and Uncollected Writings, ed. Brian Boyd and Robert Michael Pyle. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000.

  Nabokov’s Dozen. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1957.

  ‘Neskol’ko slov ob ubozhestve sovetskoy belletriski i popytka ustanovit’ prichinu onogo’, ed. Alexander A. Dolinin, Diaspora, 2 (2001), pp. 7–23.

  Nikolai Gogol. Norfolk, CT: New Directions, 1944.

  ‘Notes on the Lepidoptera of the Pyrénées Orientales and the Ariège’, Entomologist, 64 (November 1931), 255–57.

  Otchayanie [Despair]. Berlin: Petropolis, 1936

  Pale Fire. New York: Putnam, 1962.

  ‘Pis’ma k Glebu Struve’ [‘Letters to Gleb Struve’]. Ed. Evgeny Belodubrovsky, Zvezda, 4 (1999), 23–39.

  ‘Pis’ma V. V. Nabokova k Gessenam’ [‘Letters of V. V. Nabokov to the Hessens’]. Ed. V. Yu. Gessen, Zvezda, 4 (1999) pp. 42–45.

  Pnin. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1957.

  Podvig [Glory]. Paris: Sovremennye Zapiski, 1932.

  Poems. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1959.

  Poems and Problems. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971.

  Priglashenie na kazn’ [Invitation to a Beheading]. Paris: Dom Knigi, 1938.

  The Real Life of Sebastian Knight. Norfolk, CT: New Directions, 1941.

  A Russian Beauty and Other Stories. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973.

  Selected Letters, 1940–1977, ed. Dmitri Nabokov and Matthew J. Bruccoli. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich/Bruccoli Clark Layman, 1989.

  Selected Poems, ed. Thomas Karshan, with translations by Vladimir and Dmitri Nabokov. New York: Knopf, 2012.

  Sie kommt–kommt sie? [Mashen’ka; Mary], trans. Jakob Margot Schubert and G. Jarcho. Berlin: Ullstein, 1928.

  Skital’tsy [The Wanderers], Grani, 2 (1923), pp. 69–99.

  Soglyadatay [The Eye]. Paris: Russkie Zapiski, 1938.

  Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited. New York: Putnam, 1967.

  Stikhi. Ann Arbor, MI.: Ardis, 1979.

  Stikhotvoreniya, ed. Maria Malikova. St Petersburg: Akademicheskiy Proekt, 2002.

  The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov, ed. Dmitri Nabokov. New York: Knopf, 1995.

  Strong Opinions. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1973.

  Three Russian Poets: Selections from Pushkin, Lermontov and Tyutchev (Norfolk, CT: New Directions, 1944).

  Tragediya gospodina Morna, P’esy, Lektsii o drame [The Tragedy of Mister Morn, Plays, Lectures on Drama], ed. Andrey Babikov, St Petersburg: Azbuka-klassika, 2008.

  The Tragedy of Mister Morn, trans. Anastasia Tolstoy and Thomas Karshan. London: Penguin, 2012.

  Transparent Things. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972.

  Tyrants Destroyed and Other Stories, trans. Dmitri Nabokov with Vladimir Nabokov. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975.

&nb
sp; ‘V. V. Nabokov i I. A. Bunin. Perepiska’ [‘V. V. Nabokov and I. A. Bunin: Correspondence’], ed. R. Davis and M. D. Shrayer, S dvukh beregov: Russkaya literatura XX veka v Rossii i za rubezhom. Moscow: IMLI RAN, 2002, pp. 167–219.

  Verses and Versions: Three Centuries of Russian Poetry, ed. Brian Boyd and Stanislav Shvabrin. New York: Harcourt, 2008.

  Vesna v Fial’te i drugie rasskazy [Spring in Fialta and Other Stories]. New York: Chekhov Publishing House, 1956.

  Vozvrashchenie Chorba: Rasskazy i Stikhi [The Return of Chorb: Stories and Poems]. Berlin: Slovo, 1930.

  ‘Vtoroe dobavlenie k Daru’ [‘Second Addition to Dar’; ‘Father’s Butterflies’]. Ed. Alexander A. Dolinin. Zvezda, 2001: 1, pp. 85–109.

  BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL WORKS

  Barabtarlo, Gennady, Aerial Views: Essays on Nabokov’s Art and Metaphysics. New York: Peter Lang, 1993.

  Boyd, Brian, Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.

  —, Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990.

  Dolinin, Alexander A., ‘Kubovyi tsvet. Iz kommentariya k slovaryu Nabokova’. In Lazar Fleishman, Christine Gölz and Aage A. Hansen-Löve, eds., Analysieren als Deuten. Wolf Schmid zum 60. Geburtstag (Hamburg: Hamburg University Press, 2004), 563–73.