Creativity Nabokov main themes and motives. Vladimir Nabokov short biography

Vladimir Nabokov a brief biography and interesting facts from the life of a Russian-American writer, poet and translator are set out in this article.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov short biography

The future writer was born on April 22, 1899 in a noble family of a lawyer and politician in St. Petersburg.

During the revolution, he inherited from his uncle the estate of Rozhdestveno and, in addition, a million in money. On them, he released the first poetic collection of poems "Poems". It included 68 poems that he wrote from 1915 to 1916. Also, the poet's family during the period of revolutionary events moved to the Crimea, where Vladimir was waiting for simply stunning success. All his works were published in the local newspaper Yalta Voice.

But as soon as Bolshevik power was established in the Crimea, his family emigrated in 1919 abroad. Vladimir began to study at Cambridge University, creating further poetry and making translations. His first translation work was L. Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

In 1922, Nabokov's father died and he moved to Berlin. In Germany, he worked part-time, giving English lessons and publishing in newspapers for Russian émigrés.

In 1925, Vladimir Nabokov tied the knot with Vera Slonim. A year later, Nabokov's first novel, Masha, was published.

Happy parents in 1934 had a son Dmitry. Two years later, anti-Semitic persecution began, and the Nabokov family in 1936 was forced to emigrate to France, and then to the United States. In America, Vladimir wrote the first work in English called "The True Life of Sebastian Knight." In 1955, his bestseller Lolita was published, which brought the writer worldwide fame. "Lolita" was written in Russian and English.

Vladimir Nabokov is a Russian and American writer, poet, playwright, translator and literary critic. His works are still staged and made into films.

Interestingly, Nabokov was nominated 4 times in a row for the Nobel Prize in Literature. even wrote a letter to the committee so that the writer would be nominated for a prestigious award for the fifth time, but this did not produce any results.

Nabokov's favorite subject, after literature, was entomology, as he liked to observe and study their vital activity.

Later, the young man even began to collect butterflies, which he caught with a net on the street. It is interesting that in his works he often mentioned these amazing creatures.

While still a student at the school, Vladimir Nabokov published the collection "Poems", which became the first in his biography. It contained about 70 poems.

It is worth noting that the teacher of Russian literature criticized the work of the student and advised Vladimir to do something else. However, despite harsh criticism, the future writer still continued to compose poetry.

On the eve of the October Revolution of 1917, the Nabokov family decided to move to the Crimea, because they felt the coming changes.

It was there that the poet was able to achieve success in the writing field. His works were published in various newspapers and were also used for theatrical productions.

In 1918, the almanac "Two Ways" was published by Vladimir Nabokov, in collaboration with the little-known poet Andrei Balashov.

Soon he becomes interested in the metric theory of Andrei Bely, who, along with, was a leading figure in Russian symbolism and modernism. Later, Nabokov would try to apply this theory in his own writings.

Emigration

When the Bolsheviks headed by came to power in the newly formed, the Nabokov family had to leave and go to, which at that time had many Russian emigrants.

At this time of the biography, the young man enters the University of Cambridge and successfully graduates from it. Having received a diploma, he begins to work as a teacher, as well as engage in translation activities.

Creativity Nabokov

In 1926, Nabokov presented his first novel, Mashenka, which dealt with the problem of love. It should be noted that he sent his work, whom he considered his mentor.

He wanted to hear the opinion of the famous Russian writer about his book, but he did not wait for an answer from the classic.

After that, Vladimir Vladimirovich continues to write novels and publish them in the publication Sovremennye Zapiski. An interesting fact is that it was originally published under the pseudonym "Sirin".

When he came to power in Germany in the mid-30s, Nabokov again had to change his place of residence. As a result, he moves from to, and from there to.

During the biography of 1940-1958. he teaches at American universities.

The students listened to his lectures with great interest, because he had not only deep knowledge, but also the ability to beautifully present any information.

After becoming a writer, Vladimir Nabokov formed his own style of writing.

In 1955, one of the most famous novels in Nabokov's biography, Lolita, was published. It also intertwined masterfully veiled erotica.

Nabokov described the love of an adult man for a teenage girl, speaking about complex things in simple terms.

Some biographers of Nabokov believe that he was left without a Nobel Prize precisely because of his "Lolita". However, based on this book, 2 films were shot, which were very popular with the viewer.

Personal life

From a young age, Vladimir Nabokov repeatedly started love affairs with girls. In 1922, at the age of 23, he began dating Svetlana Sievert, after which he proposed to her.

However, Svetlana's parents were against her marrying Nabokov, since he did not have a permanent job.

After 3 years, he married a Jewish woman, Vera Slonim, who was an educated and intelligent girl. In this marriage, they had a boy Dmitry (1934), who later became an opera singer and translator.

Interestingly, Vera, like Nabokov himself, loved butterflies. That is why she repeatedly caught them with her husband, separating him.

Vladimir Nabokov was interested in chess and was a very strong player. Later, he even published a book with many interesting chess problems.

The writer Nabokov himself spoke of himself as follows:

I am an American writer, born in Russia, educated in England, where I studied French literature before moving to Germany for fifteen years.

My head speaks English, my heart speaks Russian and my ear speaks French.

Death

At the end of his life, Nabokov lived and worked in. During this period of his biography, he wrote 2 novels: Pale Fire (1961) and Ada (1969).

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov died on July 2, 1977 from a progressive bronchial infection. He was 78 years old.

His body was cremated and buried in Switzerland at the Claran cemetery.

Nabokov's photo

Below you can see a photo of Nabokov. There are both photos from the personal archive of Vladimir Nabokov, as well as those photos that are in the public domain.

Website . It's always interesting with us!

Liked the post? Press any button.

Nabokov left behind, without exaggeration, a huge literary heritage. His main books written in Russian are Mashenka (1926), The King, the Queen, the Jack (1928), The Return of Chorba, The Defense of Luzhin (1930), The Feat (1932), The Circle "(1936), "Gift" (1937-1938), "Invitation to execution", "Spy" (1938) and others. In the same years, he published many poems, poetic dramas: “Grandfather”, “Death”, “Wanderers”, “Plus”, plays in prose, many translations, including for children: “Anya in Wonderland” by L. Catol. In the USA he wrote in English: "The Real Life of Sebastian Knight", "Under the Sign of the Illegitimate", "Lolita", "Phantom Things", "Hell", "Look at the Harlequins!". Translated Russian poetry of the 19th century into English. He translated and commented line by line on "Eugene Onegin", published lectures on Russian literature read at Welshley College and Cornell University.

V. V. Nabokov left a significant dramatic legacy: he wrote nine plays and a script for a film based on the novel Lolita.

The first of the plays, "The Event", was written in Menton in 1938 and appeared in the same year in the fourth issue of the Russian Notes magazine. The next play, The Invention of the Waltz, was written in September 1938 in Cap d'Antibes and published in the eleventh issue of Russian Notes.

The boarding house of Nabokov's prose is densely populated with unsympathetic characters. Gloomy, annoying. Either fake, or cowardly, or frankly vile. They look accordingly. Anger and disappointment are heard in the author's voice: human nature is flawed, dirty, viscous, petty. Now this attentive spy will notice a fleshy wart near the nose on someone’s face, “as if the nostril has turned once again” (“Circle”), then he will smell “a warm, sluggish smell of a not quite healthy, elderly man” (“Mashenka”), and the reader I almost feel bad, but these are still flowers; then he will tell, just like a criminal chronicler, how a mother, having lost her patience, drowned her two-year-old daughter in the bathroom and then bathed herself - the hot water would not disappear (“Vasily Shishkov”). From each person you can get a "weak solution of evil." An unfortunate impression. Cretinism, abomination...

Nabokov was accused of thoughtlessness and lack of spirituality, of immorality, of replacing virtuous pathos with a device. But is it? Let's take a closer look at some of his works.

Reading the novel The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, one involuntarily plunges into a labyrinth of mirrors, a bizarre world of reflections, which is all the more interesting because behind each reflection we find the elusive features of Nabokov himself.

Exploring the true life of Knight, we, together with the hero of the novel (and what's there, together with Nabokov himself) constantly encounter details of life and character traits that are so well known to true lovers of Nabokov. Sometimes it seems that the author deliberately portrayed himself, who died in the Old World, in the image of Sebastian Knight, and himself, born in America, in the image of the narrator. But for a chess problem lover, this would be too easy. The author deliberately plays with the Reader, giving him the opportunity to see an almost finished portrait of Vladimir Nabokov. But immediately it becomes cloudy; a little more, and now only a pale outline is visible; and then, and at all - only a smile. However, it also dissolves, but only so that we meet again with a living writer on another page. At the same time, the author himself is his books; books that are born on the cover and die on the last page. In any case, you close all of Nabokov's books with a sense of loss of something subtly beautiful.

In general, the theme of reflections in Nabokov's works plays a very important role. Without understanding the significance of this role, it is impossible to achieve an understanding of the entire work of the writer. It is not the author himself who looks at us from the pages of the books, but the reflection of Nabokov's reflection, dressed in a fancy dress and playing a role invented by himself.

Or the first novel by Nabokov-Sirin "Mashenka" - the most "Russian" of Nabokov's novels. In the novel, the whole atmosphere, the air of a certain strangeness, the illusiveness of being, envelops the reader. Here, real destinies are embodied, turned into fictitious ones by Nabokov's talent. Later, in 1954, in "Other Shores" he will set out the true incidents that gave rise to the novel, and will name the true scene of action - the banks of the same Oberez river near Petrograd. Here, as it were, a "lining" of this, in the words of the author, "semi-biographical story" will appear - the garden of his uncle V. I. Rukavshinikov; the Tatar cut of the eyes of the heroine, to whom he again gives a pseudonym - Tamara; and a couple of girlfriends whom caring fate will soon take away from the path; cycling with a lantern charged with magic pieces of carbide. The same Petrograd winter, unfavorable for love, which ended in a dull parting, unlike Mashenka, will not step into twilight, “fluffy smelling of bird cherry”, but into “jasmine-saturated darkness.”

But already in "Mashenka" for the first time the main cross-cutting theme of V. V. Nabokov will declare itself: the theme of two houses. The house where Ganin, the protagonist of the story, temporarily resides, is transparent not only to the rumbling trains, but also to the reader - as a real symbol not only of the passage yard of exile, but also of the past as such. At the end, the hero leaves him and "will never return again." Moreover, Ganin finally understands that the image of Masha, dear to his heart, also remained forever “there, in the house of shadows, which has already become a memory itself.” And then another house pops up, just under construction.

Perhaps the most characteristic feature common to all Nabokov's passing heroes is their maximum selfishness, unwillingness to reckon with "others". Ganin does not pity Masha and their love, he pities himself, only himself, whom you will not return, just as you will not return youth and Russia. And the real Mashenka, as he fears not without reason, the wife of a dim and apathetic neighbor in the boarding house Alferov, will kill the fragile past with her “vulgar” appearance ...

The writer Galina Kuznetsova relates a typical conversation in a Russian provincial library in the Jura of France: “I asked about Sirina. - They do, but not much. Difficult. And then, it’s true that at least “Mashenka” is here. I drove and drove and didn't make it. The reader does not like such endings.

Nabokov is an intellectual writer who puts the game of imagination, mind, and fantasy above all else. The questions that concern humanity today - the fate of the intellect, loneliness and freedom, personality and the totalitarian system, love and hopelessness - he refracts in his bright metaphorical word. The stylistic sophistication and virtuosity of Nabokov sharply distinguishes him from our traditional literature. His monumental legacy is just beginning to be published in his homeland. The general assessment of his work is ahead; its place in Russian and world literature will be determined later.

In preparing this work, materials from the site http://www.studentu.ru were used.

Among the writers of the Russian emigration, Vladimir Nabokov was perhaps as famous as Ivan Bunin, who became the first Russian Nobel laureate. It was Bunin, the famous master who, as a rule, was skeptical about all young writers, who remarked about Nabokov: “This one already belongs to the history of Russian literature. A monster, but what a writer!” The biography of Vladimir Nabokov is very diverse and difficult.

Critics also unmistakably guessed Nabokov's amazing talent, supported and unconditionally recognized him. Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov belonged to the younger generation of the first wave of Russian emigration, among whom
the swarm was dominated by poets, not prose writers - Gazdanov, Poplavsky, Felzen. And Nabokov himself began with poetry, perhaps from here his pseudonym appeared - Sirin, associated with a fantastic songbird from Russian fairy tales. Publishing his first works under a pseudonym, Nabokov at the same time wanted to separate himself from his father, a well-known politician who in 1917 was a member of the Provisional Government from the Cadets, and in 1922 died in Paris at the hands of the monarchists, who were going to kill P. Milyukov.

In the thirties, a complex political and social atmosphere developed in Europe, and fascism appeared in Germany, where the writer lived at that time. Under these conditions, Russian contemporary literature is of little interest to anyone. Nevertheless, literary life does not stop, despite the fact that writers are difficult and few are published. Their life is unsettled, and their position in society is unsteady and uncertain.

Of course, all this was in sharp contrast to Nabokov's well-established life since childhood, many servants, studying at the most expensive and prestigious Tenishevsky school and summer vacations at the family estate. True, even in exile, Nabokov managed to finish the famous Cambridge University.
The work of Vladimir Nabokov, as it were, falls into two periods - European and American.

In 1926, Nabokov's first novel, Mashenka, appeared, which was received favorably by critics, but without any enthusiasm. It is followed by The King, Queen, Jack (1928) and Luzhin's Defense (1930), which was considered by many to be "far-fetched". Thus, the critic Adamovich noted that it shows "the novelty of narrative skill, but not the knowledge of life."

It was after this novel that they started talking about Nabokov's closeness to foreign, and not Russian, models. Such an assessment of the novel was given, in particular, by the poet, writer and memoirist G. Ivanov. This perception of the writer's work largely blocked his way to readers, as publishers were frightened by Nabokov's excessive “Westernness”.

The 1930s became a very important time for Nabokov creatively. During this time he published six novels, several short stories and two plays, one of which was staged in Paris. Among them, the most significant are Camera Obscura (1932, 1934), Invitation to Execution (1935, 1938), and The Gift (1937-1938, 1952).

What attracted Nabokov in all these works? Undoubted mastery, virtuoso handling of the word and the organic gift of composition. The content of many of Nabokov's works is difficult to retell; it is rather a mood, a reflection, some kind of idea. In another case, their essence is clear from the first page, but they fascinate the reader with the magic of the word, and he can no longer tear himself away from further narration. It is no coincidence that the author of historical novels, M. Aldanov, wrote “about the uninterrupted flow of the most unexpected formal, stylistic, psychological, and artistic discoveries” that he discovers in the works of Vladimir Nabokov.

Despite the fact that Nabokov publishes a lot, he does not live well financially, therefore, in addition to literary studies, he has to earn extra money by teaching English and tennis, and giving lectures. However, the writer was soon forced to leave Nazi Germany for France, as he was afraid for his Jewish wife.

But in France, too, it was restless. The threat of war hung over the whole of Europe, so in 1940 Nabokov and his family left for America. The first years of life in the New World were not easy. Sometimes the writer even fell into despair, because he had to do odd jobs. However, he never lost his dignity, did not humiliate himself and did not stand in the pose of an "offended Russian writer", which at that time was enough in America. In addition, Nabokov knew exactly what he wanted and was not devoid of practical acumen. Gradually the situation improved. From 1948 to 1959, Nabokov was already a professor of literature at Cornell University, which brought him not only prosperity, but also psychological stability. Now he could afford to devote most of his time to literary pursuits.

In America, Nabokov almost completely switches to English in his work.
Of course, before that he often translated himself. Now it is in English that his novels The Real Life of Sebastian Wright (1947), Other Shores (1950), Lolita (1955), Pnin (1957) appear. In 1964, Nabokov published his translation into English of Eugene Onegin, providing him with a lengthy commentary, in 1969 his new novel Ada was published, which was also a huge success. So the Russian writer, who by the will of fate found himself outside his homeland, turned into an American writer.

Vladimir Nabokov attracted the attention of critics as soon as he published his first novels in America. However, only with the advent of "Lolita", around which a scandal erupted, he turned into a writer of world renown. The story of a twelve-year-old nymphet and her love relationship with a forty-year-old man struck society, and censorship declared this novel "pornographic." The world was not yet ready for sexual liberation. Nevertheless, his time was drawing near. That is why the popularity of "Lolita" subsequently increased. This novel was not only reprinted - several films were made based on it, the most famous of which is S. Kubrick's film.

At the same time, Vladimir Nabokov showed himself to be a great artist. The critic Adamovich wrote about Nabokov's work that the gift of embodiment "was combined with his unrestrained stylistic fantasy." Indeed, Nabokov's fascination with detail, metaphor and color is simply amazing: “She was all roses and honey: she wore her brightest cotton dress with a pattern of red apples; arms and legs were covered with a deep golden-brown tan; the scratches on them looked like a dotted line of tiny baked rubies…” Perhaps the sophistication in the description of color in Nabokov's prose was also connected with the writer's passion for entomology. For many years, Nabokov collected a collection of butterflies and even discovered several rare species. During his lifetime, he donated part of his collection to museums. So it is unlikely that his entomology classes can be called just a hobby.

Once in America and living there for twenty years, Vladimir Nabokov claimed that he was not a Russian, but an American writer: "America is the only country where I feel intellectually and emotionally at home."
Nevertheless, Nabokov lived the rest of his life in Switzerland, and settled in an old hotel that somehow reminded him of his childhood. After the death of her husband, Vera Nabokova lived there for another fourteen years and left this hotel only when it was closed for major repairs. However, even then she did not go far from here, her son and Vladimir Nabokov bought a house nearby, from which the same view of the surroundings opened.
Recognizing the merits of the writer, UNESCO declared 1999 the year of Nabokov. It is noteworthy that two outstanding authors - Pushkin and Nabokov, one of whom considered himself an American writer, are separated by exactly a century: their anniversaries were celebrated in the same year.

In the 1930s Nabokov writes short stories, 7 novels, plays The Invention of the Waltz and The Event. Generalization of psychological experience - memoirs. A special page of creativity - works on the history of Russian and Western literature, three-volume notes to his own translation of "Eugene Onegin".

In 1938 Nabokov moved to Paris, in 1940 to the USA. This is the end of the Russian-speaking writer Sirin and the birth of the English-speaking Nabokov. The novels "Other Shores", "Lolita", "Pnin", "Ada" were written in English.

Literature for Nabokov was a game with readers. He diverged radically from the classical tradition of Russian literature. In this respect, he is an artist of disruption and, at the same time, an innovative artist. The revolution unsettled Nabokov. The loss of paradise (childhood) is not only a social loss, but, above all, an existential one. This is a transition to the world of vulgarity (the most terrible concept in Nabokov). But, getting into the world of vulgarity, Nabokov defines it not as a true world, but as a world of ghosts, illusions. Nabokov embodied the lost right to social aristocracy into aesthetic aristocracy.

Nabokov's method is a hoax, a game, a parody, in which the traditions of Stern, Hugo, Edgar Poe are traced. The type of hero is a genius not understood by the townsfolk, persecuted, lonely, suffering and often mocking the crowd. Nabokov's heroes seem to be reflected in each other, differing only in the degree of loneliness.

Nabokov is an intellectual writer who puts the play of the imagination and the mind above all else. He is concerned about the problems of loneliness and freedom; personality and power, gift and destiny are refracted in stylistic sophistication and virtuosity. This sharply distinguishes him from traditional Russian literature, where the form was subordinated to the moral, "teaching" task.

The main feature of Nabokov's novel is the absence of character in the traditionally realistic sense. Nabokov creates not so much a character as a mannequin, a doll. Heroes are executors of the author's will, devoid of motivation and logic of actions. material from the site

Nabokov asserted a new ethical system, unacceptable for Russian literature, which is based on fundamental individualism and the pathos of public non-service. This led to a break with the aesthetic tradition of Russian literature, led to the destruction of the realistic character, to modernism. Aestheticism has become a quality of the artistic world. It manifested itself in the complexity of style, the phenomenality of metaphors. In the world of Nabokov there is no reality at all, but there are many subjective images of reality, hence the multiplicity of interpretations of the work. With all these aesthetic devices, Nabokov anticipated postmodernism.