Subject: RE: [NABOKV-L] St Petersburg
From: "Dmitri Nabokov" <[email-masked]>
To: "'Vladimir Nabokov Forum'" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2006 10:48:59 -0400

This entry, transcribed by Sandy Klein from the online Wikipedia, is
assembled with good intentions and is fairly accurate. One serious
error, on which I have meant to comment in the past, regards the
tombstone pictured at the end of the article. It is that of my paternal
grandfather, Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, who was assassinated in 1922
and is buried at the Russian cemetery in Tegel (Berlin), not that of my
father, Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov, who died in 1977and whose ashes
are buried at the cemetery in Clarens (Montreux, Switzerland).  The
correct name and date of death are, in fact, clearly legible in the
photograph of the tomb.
 
With my thanks,
 
Dmitri Nabokov  

-----Original Message-----
From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:[email-masked]] On
Behalf Of Sandy P. Klein
Sent: mardi, 13. juin 2006 01:18
To: [email-masked]
Subject: [NABOKV-L] St Petersburg

 
 
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Date: June 13, 2006 Time: 3:10 AM (GMT+3) Weather: C, 

Nabokov 

 Vladimir Nabokov
<http://ts-ru.tourarena.com/ta2graph.nsf/Graph/LITERAture1_Nabokov.neede
d/$File/Nabokov.needed.jpg> 

Critics call Vladimir Nabokov a cosmopolitan writer, while he himself
used to say "My head speaks English, my heart speaks Russian and my ear
speaks French". One way or another, his creation is a world-wide
heritage. The best part of Nabokov's writing career geographically
indeed belonged to the United States and Western Europe, but it started
and was formed in Saint-Petersburg and its essential inspiration had
always been his nostalgia for the city of his youth.

 Nabokovs' Mansion
<http://ts-ru.tourarena.com/ta2graph.nsf/Graph/LITERAture1_Nabokov.museu
m/$File/Nabokov.museum.jpg> 

Vladimir Nabokov was born on April 22, 1899 in a well-off noble family
of Saint-Petersburg aristocrats. He was brought up in the air of
blissful happiness and welfare. The family lived in the Nabokovs'
Mansion on Bolshaya Morskaya Street 47. The present look of the house
was designed by Geisler and Guslisty in 1901-1902 as the first example
of the so-called Art Nouveau style in Saint-Petersburg. It was not until
1992 that an exhibition devoted to the writer's life and career opened
in the mansion. Today the exhibition is housed on the ground-floor of
the building and a true Nabokov's commemorative museum is to open soon.

 Vladimir's parents
<http://ts-ru.tourarena.com/ta2graph.nsf/Graph/LITERAture1_Nabokov.paren
ts/$File/Nabokov.parents.jpg> 

Nabokov's parents gave him a truly comprehensive pre-school education,
including excellent knowledge of the three major languages that were
later to become of so much use for him as a writer. With all the
attention paid to painting, philology and natural sciences, especially
etymology and great attention to physical education, it was hardly
possible to get a better education for a child. His father, a professor
of jurisdiction in the Imperial College, gathered remarkable art
collection and library. The house was full of precious pieces of art,
paintings by Bakst, Benous, Somov, and priceless books.

 Vladimir Nabokov
<http://ts-ru.tourarena.com/ta2graph.nsf/Graph/LITERAture1_Nabokov.boy/$
File/Nabokov.boy.jpg> 

From 1911 till 1917 Nabokov studied at Tenishevsky College. It was
already at school when his notorious self-confidence and aplomb began to
show up. There he won the reputation of a snob. Nevertheless, those were
the most happy years of his life. The romantic memories of
Saint-Petersburg were to play the key role in his future writing. As
already a well-established writer he described the joyful years in his
nostalgic biographical novel "The Other Coasts".

The political disorder in Russia of the late 1910ths ruined the
Nabokovs' idyll once and for all forcing the family to seek shelter
abroad. Terror and anarchy were to follow the Bolsheviks' seizure of
power and the Nabokovs knew this only too well. In 1919, they crossed
Russian borders heading for Western Europe and none of them ever
returned to Saint-Petersburg. Their mansion was then nationalized by
Bolsheviks. The family's private art collection and library were taken
by the Soviet Government. Some of the items were given to the Hermitage
and the Russian Museum collections, while the rest seems to have been
dispersed for ever.

 Vladimir Nabokov
<http://ts-ru.tourarena.com/ta2graph.nsf/Graph/LITERAture1_Nabokov.think
ing/$File/Nabokov.thinking.jpg> 

While his parents, sisters and brothers settled in Berlin, he himself
arrived in England to study French and Russian literature at Cambridge
in 1919-1922. From this there came his first bulk of verses. From the
very beginning Nabokov's nostalgia served him as a kind of lyric
background for his narration. His first novels were written in his
native tongue, "Mashen'ka", "Defence of Luzhin", "Desperation",
"Invitation for Execution", "The Gift". In 1925, when he already began
to enjoy popularity, Nabokov married Vera Slonim. Not only was she the
most helpful ally in the writer's career, but also the Muse to whom he
dedicated many of his brilliant novels.

 Vladimir Nabokov
<http://ts-ru.tourarena.com/ta2graph.nsf/Graph/LITERAture1_Nabokov.dream
ing/$File/Nabokov.dreaming.jpg> 

In 1940 Nabokov arrived in the United States where he lived until 1960.
Thanks to his intelligence and hard work Nabokov adapted quickly to the
new way of life. His special sense for foreign languages was important
too. Soon he was able to give public lectures in American colleges and
Universities. An already famous writer, he had to prove his worth once
again. The great success of his scandalous novel "Lolita" written in
English in 1950 let Nabokov quit his teaching and concentrate on
writing. Still, he kept his Russian alive by translating into Russian
all his originally English works.

 Vladimir Nabokov
<http://ts-ru.tourarena.com/ta2graph.nsf/Graph/LITERAture1_Nabokov.glass
es/$File/Nabokov.glasses.jpg> 

Nabokov viewed both great languages as a part of his natural background
and wanted the two cultures to know each other as well as possible. The
four volumes of his painstaking attempts to clear up the poem "Eugenie
Onegin" by Pushkin for the English were a feat, however useless. He did
it by dissipating the poetical body into a desperate amount of
descriptive notes, and indeed made the origin so flat as if it were no
poem at all. Nonetheless, it doesn't reduce his talent for double-sided
work. He knew perfectly how to bring an idea from one language into
another as long as his own work was concerned.

 the grave of Vladimir Nabokov
<http://ts-ru.tourarena.com/ta2graph.nsf/Graph/LITERAture1_Nabokov.grave
/$File/Nabokov.grave.jpg> 

In 1960 Nabokov moved to Switzerland were he created his two most
intricate English novels "Pale Fire" and "Ada, or Passion". As an old
man he turned back to his native language. He translated and published
the Russian version of "Lolita" and wrote a bulk of lyric poems in
Russian. He died on July 2, 1977 in Switzerland never returning to his
native city.

 

 

 

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