The Russian Years (v. 1) (Vladimir Nabokov) - Hardcover

Boyd, Brian

4.33

524 ratings by Goodreads

9780701137007: The Russian Years (v. 1) (Vladimir Nabokov)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701137002 ISBN 13: 9780701137007

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 1990

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Drawing on diaries, letters and manuscripts, on archival research in the Soviet Union, Europe and North America, and on interviews with Nabokov's family, friends, collegues, students - on everyone from an ex-fiancee to babysitters and concierges - the author captures the colour of Nabokov's life and world: opulent pre-revolutionary Petersburg, a Russian poet's Cambridge, impoverished emigre Berlin and France. The book includes a critical overview of Nabokov's thought and art.

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Review:

Mr. Boyd has a remarkable gift for drawing life and literature together. . . .[What he does] in this impressive biography reveals to us a Nabokov who has been far too little known. . . . As a biography [Boyd's] book can hardly be surpassed. It is a definitive life of the man and a superbly documented chronicle of his time.--Sergei Davydov "The New York Times Book Review "

A terrific biography: intelligent, compulsively readable, indispensable. Brian Boyd brings to his work a passionate scholarship comparable to that in Nabokov's own encyclopedic edition of Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin." You just can't do better than that.--Michael Dirada "the Washington Post Book World "

Boyd has many qualities which mark him as Nabokov's natural biographer.--Jane Grayson "The Times Literary Supplement "

To the short list of outstanding literary biographies in our time there must now be added another remarkable achievement. . . . Brian Boyd had a great story to tell, and he has told it superbly.--Hilton Kramer "The Wall Street Journal "
Mr. Boyd has a remarkable gift for drawing life and literature together. . .
.[What he does] in this impressive biography reveals to us a Nabokov who has
been far too little known. . . . As a biography [Boyd's] book can hardly be
surpassed. It is a definitive life of the man and a superbly documented
chronicle of his time.
--Sergei Davydov "The New York Times Book Review "
A terrific biography: intelligent, compulsively readable, indispensable.
Brian Boyd brings to his work a passionate scholarship comparable to that in
Nabokov's own encyclopedic edition of Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin." You
just can't do better than that.
--Michael Dirada "the Washington Post Book World "
To the short list of outstanding literary biographies in our time there must
now be added another remarkable achievement. . . . Brian Boyd had a great
story to tell, and he has told it superbly.
--Hilton Kramer "The Wall Street Journal "
Boyd has many qualities which mark him as Nabokov's natural
biographer.
--Jane Grayson "The Times Literary Supplement "

One of "Choice"'s Outstanding Academic Titles for 1991
One of "Choice"'s Outstanding Academic Titles for 1991

About the Author:

Brian Boyd is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of English at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is the author of the prize-winning Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years (Princeton 1990), Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years (Princeton 1991), and Nabokov's Ada: The Place of Consciousness. Referred to in a recent journal as "the great man of Nabokov studies," he has also edited Nabokov's English novels and autobiography for the Library of America and Nabokov's Butterflies for Beacon Press.

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