Letters to Véra

June 29, 2015
It's hard to imagine Vladimir Nabokov spending enough time away from his wife, Vera, to write even a single letter to her, much less a massive collection of them. However, in this authoritative and charming new volume, we learn that early in their marriage, the famed author of Lolita wrote to his wife frequently while traveling. Most of the letters were written between 1923 and 1944, a period that found Vladimir often living in places such as Paris, Brussels, and Prague, while his wife and young son stayed in Berlin or traveled elsewhere. Vera, editor Boyd tell us, did not respond in kind nearly as often (and most of the letters she did write were destroyed), but Vladimir's attachment to his wife, as revealed here, is simply astounding. The letters include drawings for their son, Dmitri; riddles for Vera; and endearments like "my kitty" and "my darling." It's clear that his world revolved around her. In the very first letter, Vladimir writes "I need you, my fairy-tale... you are the only person I can talk with about the shade of a cloud, about the song of a thought." These letters form a touching record of a famous literary marriage and further attest to the great novelist's sheer devotion and erudition.

July 15, 2015
Portrait of a marriage, revealed through a legendary writer's letters to his wife. From the moment Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) met Vera Slonim (1902-1991) in 1923, he sent her passionate letters, detailing the events of his days (meals eaten, hours slept, butterflies collected), the process of his work, and the sights and sounds of wherever he was. Voronina (Russian and Eurasian Studies/Bard Coll.), who served as deputy director of the Nabokov Museum in St. Petersburg, and Nabokov biographer Boyd (English/Univ. of Auckland; On the Origin of Stories, 2009, etc.) have amassed and translated this copious trove, contextualizing it with a lengthy introduction and hundreds of pages of notes. The letters, some containing drawings, puzzles, and word games, offer a revealing portrait of the Nabokovs' marriage; the writer's relationships with his son, mother, editors, publishers, and friends; and, by inference, a portrait of Vera. With "an intense need for privacy" and desire to control her husband's reputation, she gradually and reluctantly made his letters available to Boyd and her own biographer, Stacy Schiff, but destroyed her letters to him. Moreover, his letters from 1932 never were found and are represented here by transcriptions of portions that Vera read to Boyd. Nabokov's letters are filled with such effusive declarations of love and "quirky Russian endearments" that one feels almost voyeuristic in reading them: "My poochums, pooch-chums," "Pussykins," "My grand ciel rose," "my greenikin." "My darling, my sweetest love, my darling," he wrote, even while in the midst of an affair with another woman. Many letters date from their separation in 1937, when Vladimir fled Germany, leaving his wife, mother, and son to follow him. Vera, exhausted and "overstrung," subjected her husband to a "long-distance chess game," pitting her desires against his. She won, as usual. Fans of Nabokov, and certainly scholars, will be captivated by these intimate expressions of the writer's heart and mind.

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June 15, 2015

Published for the first time ever, this half-century's worth of letters from Nabokov to his wife, Vera, tell an extraordinary love story while delivering an intimate portrait of the great writer. Voronina, a former deputy director of the Nabokov Museum in St. Petersburg and now a professor at Bard, and award-winning Nabokov biographer Boyd offer extensive annotations and indexing. Nabokov's Facebook page boasts nearly 300,000 fans.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2015

Readers will find the same love of language here that they find everywhere else in Nabokov's writing (Lolita). Even when relaying gossip or discussing mundane business, he wrote con brio. The first letter came less than three months after he met Vera Slonim (1902-91); the last is a poem, penned 53 years later, after 50 years of marriage. Details will be of interest primarily to the student of Nabokov's life (1899-1977), but the arc of this correspondence is clear: profuse, inventive professions of love for Vera; the games and ciphers he included in letter after letter to cheer her up while he was away; drawings for their son, Dmitri; around it all, the business of lives lived apart for too long. Vera destroyed her correspondence and Nabokov only wrote when they were separated so there are gaps of time and content. Still, the epistles show what a treasure the author was: upbeat, reasonable; personally vain but no lover of pomp; an inveterate maker of connections; an acute observer and magical maker of phrases. Scholars will appreciate the thorough editing by Voronina (Russian & director, Russian and Eurasian studies program, Bard Univ.; former deputy director, Nabokov Museum, Russia) and Boyd (English, Univ. of Auckland, Australia; Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years) which helps in reading a text with new names on most pages. VERDICT Nabokov scholars will drool over this book, but there's plenty here of general interest. [See Prepub Alert, 5/17/15.]--David Keymer, Modesto, CA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.