Vladimir Nabokov

Literature / Writers Datebook: April 22

 

Brief biography of Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born American novelist, one of 20^th century's outstanding writers, and famous for his masterpiece novel, Lolita, considered a controversial novel in his day. His literary knowledge spanned many languages, and he was a scholar of lepidoptery and literature.   

 

 

 

Early Life 

Vladimir Nabokov was born on April 22, 1899 in St. Petersburg, Russia, into an aristocratic family. An intelligent child, he learned to speak English and French along with his native Russian. His first poems were published before he was twenty years old.

During the Russian Revolution his family lost its wealth. The family moved abroad in 1919. Nabokov studied at Cambridge University, and from 1922 until 1940 lived first in Germany and then Paris, where he met novelist James Joyce and mixed with Russian refugees. He published nine novels during these years, writing in Russian under the pen name Vladimir Serin. Although his reputation as an novelist grew, he earned little money and had to teach to survive.

 

Migration to the U.S.

In 1940, Nabokov, his wife and son moved to America, where he took citizenship in 1945. His first novel in English was The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, published when he was 42. From then on he wrote all his books in English.

Nabokov taught at Cornell University from 1948 to 1059, in which he used this experience for his novel Pnin, a comic account of a Russian professor at an American university.

 

Lolita, a Masterpiece

When he was in his mid-50s, Nabokov published Lolita. It tells the story of a middle-aged man and his passion for his 12-year-old stepdaughter. That time the novel's subject matter shocked many people, but its literary style and humor were praised by critics. Lolita was an instant success, Nabokov's masterpiece. It catapulted him to fame and finally, enabled him to devote to writing.  

Vladimir Nabokov died at the age of 78, July 2, 1977.

 

Quoted from Nabokov's masterpiece, Lolita:

"I am trying to describe these things not to relive them in my present boundless misery, but to sort out the portion of hell and the portion of heaven in that strange, awful, maddening world – nymphet love."

 

Works by Vladimir Nabokov

Mashenka, 1926 (originally in Russian)

Mary, 1926

King, Queen, Knave, 1928

The Eye, 1930 (originally in Russian)

Laughter in the Dark, 1932

Despair, 1936

The Gift, 1937-1938

Invitation to a Beheading, 1938 (originally in Russian)

The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, 1941

Bend Sinister, 1947

Lolita, 1955

Pnin, 1957

Pale Fire, 1962

 

Photo Credit:

Vladimir Nabokov. Wikipedia Commons / Public Domain. Accessed April 2010

 

Resources:

Goring, Rosemary, editor. Larousse Dictionary of Writers. New York: Larousse, 1994

McGovern, Una, editor. Chambers Biographical Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap, 2002

Ousby, Ian. The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993

(c) April 2010. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.  

Alexander Pushkin

Literature / Writers Datebook: June 6

Brief biography of Russian oet, novelist and short story writer Alexander (also spelt Aleksandr) Pushkin, considered Russia's greatest poet. Famous for fairy tale "Ruslan and Lyudmila" and masterpiece "Eugene Onegin." 

Pushkin is generally considered to be Russia's greatest poet and founder of modern Russian literature. Before him, Russian literature used formal style of language. He introduced everyday speech through his poetry and new themes from Russian history and folklore. His most famous books made into operas by prominent composers are Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky), Ruslan and Lyudmila (Glinka) and Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky).

 

Early Life

Aleksandr Pushkin was born in Moscow on June 6, 1799 (O.S. May 26), into a cultured but poor aristocratic family. He studied in the town of Tsarskoye Selo, now renamed Pushkin in his honour. After graduating in 1817 at the age of 18, he was appointed to a government position in St. Petersburg and lived a thrilling social life. He started writing poetry from an early age. His first published poem, "To a Poet Friend," was written when he was only fourteen but his first major work, the known verse fairy tale Ruslan and Lyudmila, came out after seven years, when he was twenty-one. 

The social reformist and his writings

In spite of his living a rich lifestyle, Pushkin was deeply committed to social reform as exhibited in his writings. His poem 'Ode to Liberty' angered the Russian emperor that he was banished from St. Petersburg for six years. It was during this years of exile that he wrote some of his finest works, including The Prisoner of the Caucasus and The Gypsies. He also began his masterpiece, Eugene Onegin, a novel in verse that satirized Russian society made into an opera by Piotr Tchaikovsky. Pushkin enjoyed writing about Russian heroes. In The Bronze Horseman he depicted the legendary Russian emperor Peter the Great.

Pushkin was eventually pardoned by the emperor in 1826 and returned to St. Petersburg. Five years later, he married Natalia Goncharova, but he got into trouble from her social ambitions that drove him into debt. In defending her reputation he was forced to fight a duel and got killed. He died on February 10, 1837 at the young age of 37.  

Works by Alexander (Aleksandr) Pushkin

Ruslan and Lyudmila, 1820

The Prisoner of the Caucasus, 1822

Eugene Onegin, 1823-1831

The Gypsies, 1827

Boris Godunov, 1831

The Queen of Spades, 1834

The Bronze Horseman, 1837, published after his death

The Captain's Daughter, 1843, published after his death 

 

Photo Credit:

Alexander Pushkin. Wikipedia Commpns / Public Domain  (Portrait by Orest Kiprensky, 1827)

 

Resources:

Alexander Pushkin. en.wikipedia.org.

Chambers Biographical Dictionary, New Edition, edited by Una McGovern, Chambers Harrap Publishers, 2002

Larousse Dictionary of Writers, edited by Rosemary Goring, Larousse plc, 1994

 

(c) June 2009. Tel. Inspired PEn Web. All rights reserved.