Speak, Memory

By Vladimir Nabokov,

Book cover of Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited

Book description

An autobiographical volume which recounts the story of Nabokov's first forty years up to his departure from Europe for America at the outset of World War Two. It tells of his emergence as a writer, his early loves and his marriage, and his passions for butterflies and his lost homeland.…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

4 authors picked Speak, Memory as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This classic book, unlike others in the list, is not so much about memory, as a collection of the author’s memories of his childhood and early years.

Nabokov was born into a wealthy family in pre-Revolutionary Russia in 1899. His childhood in St. Petersburg and at the family’s country estate are described in loving detail, as are aspects of later years in England, Germany, and France. Nabokov was one of the great writers of the 20th Century, and the memories are recounted in his glowing and evocative prose.

His writing is nostalgic, but also wryly humorous, aware that many aspects…

Exquisite writing Nabokov-style would be enough of a reason to put this book, seen by some as one of the most influential books of all times, at the top of my list.

Speak, Memory was assembled from short stories that were published first separately, without any indication that they were autobiographical. This memoir was born literary, even as it contains fascinating historical details about Russia before the Russian Revolution. Nabokov does not betray his longing for this lost world even as he reconstructs it in meticulous and vivid details.

The political aspect, although so important for a writer whose family…

Nabokov's ability to catch and pin ephemeral ideas provides sumptuous reflections in this prism of his analytic perception. Speak, Memory is a ludic, linguistic, conjuring of memories. The chapters were written on different occasions and collated for this purpose. He even wrote an extra Chapter (16) as an anonymous reviewer, explaining "He (Nabokov) is out to prove that his childhood contained, on a much-reduced scale, the main components of his creative maturity; thus, through the thin sheath of a ripe chrysalis one can see, in its small wing cases, the dawning of color and pattern, a miniature revelation of the…

The Vixen Amber Halloway

By Carol LaHines,

Book cover of The Vixen Amber Halloway

Ad
Carol LaHines Author Of Distant Flickers: Stories of Identity & Loss

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

The anthology form unites diverse voices around a common theme—in the case of Distant Flickers, identity and loss. The stories in the anthology explore intense personal relationships—of mother and child, old lovers, etc. Some of the stories are in the moment and some recounted with the perspective of time, some are fable-like, some formal, and others more colloquial. Reading them the reader is struck by the variety of approaches a writer might take to a subject. The device of the contributor’s notes enables the reader to see the story behind the story and how life informs art—life furnishing the raw material or day residue of the story.  

Carol's book list on themed anthologies

What is my book about?

Ophelia, a professor of Dante, is stricken when she discovers that her husband Andy has been cheating on her with a winsome colleague. What follows is Ophelia’s figurative descent into hell as she obsessively tracks her subjects, performs surveillance in her beat-up Volvo, and moves into the property next door to Amber’s, which has gone into foreclosure.

She spies on the lovers, growing more and more estranged from reality. Andy’s betrayal reawakens the earlier trauma of abandonment by her mother at the age of eight. When Andy and Amber become engaged, Ophelia snaps. The story is a jailhouse confessional, a…

The Vixen Amber Halloway

By Carol LaHines,

What is this book about?

Ophelia, a professor of Dante, is stricken when she discovers that her husband Andy has been cheating on her with a winsome colleague. What follows is Ophelia's figurative descent into hell as she obsessively tracks her subjects, performs surveillance in her beat-up Volvo, and moves into the property next door to Amber's, which has gone into foreclosure. She spies on the lovers, growing more and more estranged from reality. Andy's betrayal reawakens the earlier trauma of abandonment by her mother at the age of eight. When Andy and Amber become engaged, Ophelia snaps. The story is a jailhouse confessional, a…


Out of all Vladimir Nabokov’s books, Speak Memory -- this rebellion “against the two eternities of darkness which bookend a human life” -- is the one I return to most often.  Exiled and dispossessed by the Russian Revolution of 1917, Nabokov manages to escape the snares of nostalgia. He does not grieve the lost past, but revisits the very heart of his Russia, the people, the sites, the tastes of his childhood and adolescence. Speak Memory does not end with exile. Nabokov chronicles the lives of the Russian emigres in Berlin and Paris, the necessary adjustments and transformations of…

From Eva's list on Russia’s history and culture.

Want books like Speak, Memory?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Speak, Memory.

Browse books like Speak, Memory

Book cover of Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets
Book cover of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die
Book cover of Anna Karenina

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,501

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in the Russian Revolution, Russia, and butterflies?

Russia 390 books
Butterflies 39 books