2. A Biographer’s Life

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS vii
3. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
4. ABBREVIATIONS xi
5. INTRODUCTION xiii
6. THE WRITER’S LIFE AND THE LIFE WRITER
7. 1. A Centennial Toast 3
8. 2. A Biographer’s Life 8
9. 3. Who Is “My Nabokov”? 19
10. NABOKOV’S MANUSCRIPTS AND BOOKS
11. 4. The Nabokov Biography and the Nabokov Archive 25
12. 5. From the Nabokov Archive 40
13. NABOKOV’S METAPHYSICS
14. 6. Retrospects and Prospects 57
15. 7. Nabokov’s Afterlife 66
16. NABOKOV’S BUTTERFLIES
17. 8. Nabokov, Literature, Lepidoptera 73
18. 9. Netting Nabokov 100
19. NABOKOV AS PSYCHOLOGIST
20. 10. The Psychological Work of Fictional Play 109
21. NABOKOV AND THE ORIGINS AND ENDS OF STORIES
22. 11. Stacks of Stories, Stories of Stacks 123
23. NABOKOV AS WRITER
24. 12. Nabokov’s Humor 145
25. 13. Nabokov as Storyteller 157
26. 14. Nabokov’s Transition from Russian to English 176
27. NABOKOV AND OTHERS
28. 15. Nabokov, Pushkin, Shakespeare 203
29. 16. Nabokov as Verse Translator 214
30. 17. Tolstoy and Nabokov 229
31. 18. Nabokov and Machado de Assis 248
32. NABOKOV WORKS
33. 19. Speak, Memory: The Life and the Art 265
34. 20. Speak, Memory: Nabokov, Mother, and Lovers 276
35. 21. Lolita: Scene and Unseen 288
36. 22. Even Homais Nods 297
37. 23. Literature, Pattern, Lolita 320
38. 24. “Pale Fire”: Poem and Pattern 336
39. 25. Ada: The Bog and the Garden 360
40. 26. A Book Burner Recants 385
41. NOTES 397
42. BIBLIOGRAPHY 423
43. INDEX 437