VLADIMIR NABOKOV T HE R U S S I A N Y E A R S B R I A N B O Y D • • PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY Copyright © 1990 by Brian Boyd Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Oxford All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Boyd, Brian. Vladimir Nabokov: the Russian years / Brian Boyd, p. cm. ISBN 0-691-06794-5 (alk. paper) 1. Nabokov, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1899-1977—Biography. 2. Authors, Russian—20th century—Biography. 3. Authors, American—20th century—Biography. I. Title PG3476.N3Z59 1990 813’.54—dc20 IBI 90-8040 CIP This book has been composed in Linotron Palatino The following sections of this book have appeared elsewhere in slightly different form: chapter 2 (Canadian-American Slavic Studies), chapter 7 (Shenandoah), chapter 11 (Russian Literature Triquarterly), chapter 13 (Vladimir Nabokov, Gesammelte Werke: Marginalien [Rowohlt, 19891), and chapter 14 (Modern Fiction Studies). Princeton University Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources Printed in the United States of America by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 13579 10 8642 T O B R O N W E N Interviewer: What surprises you in life? N abokov: . the marvel of consciousness—that sudden window swinging open on a sunlit landscape amidst the night of non-being. Straightforward or down-to-earth THE RUSSIAN YEARS, 1899-1940 List of Illustrations xi Note on Dates xiii Introduction 3 PART Is RUSSIA • LODY • 1 Liberal Strains: The Pattern of the Past 15 2 A World Awakening: St. Petersburg, 1899-1904 37 3 First Revolution and First Duma: St. Petersburg, 1904-1906 54 4 Butterflies: St. Petersburg, 1906-1910 68 5 School: St. Petersburg, 1911-1914 86 6 Lover and Poet: Petrograd, 1914-1917 110 7 Foretaste of Exile: Crimea, 1917-1919 136 PART II: EUROPE • SIRIN • 8 Becoming Sirin: Cambridge, 1919-1922 163 9 Regrouping: Berlin, 1922-1923 196