Speak, Memory

by Vladimir Nabokov

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In a word: melancholy

In a sentence: This, Nabokov's autobiography, floats through his life like his butterfly loves.

Synopsis: Speak, Memory is Vladimir Nabokov's autobiographic memoir, which focuses primarily on his early life in Russia before the Revolution forced his family and him into exile, and is written to his wife Vera. It serves as a chronology of individuals he loved or that shaped his life including family members, various tutors, women, and butterflies. It is his experience self-vocalized in a language typical of Nabokov: mistily and strikingly.

Reactions: In its beginning, Nabokov's life was one of the extreme luxury, followed almost continuously by war and loss. The autobiography helps to understand one of my favorite writers. The joy and loss of a nostalgic childhood felt by a man in exile; a family history of love and regret; a man hunted by revolution and war. Confessions from an artist's soul. My second favorite Nabokov work.

Read if: interested in the life of a literary icon through his own glasses. Be prepared for his catharsis.