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The road to Lolita: why Nabokov’s literary talent finally blossomed in America

Among Robert Roper’s many surprising and original ideas in his account of Nabokov in America is that the novelist’s son Dmitri may have been the inspiration for Lolita

22 August 2015

9:00 AM

22 August 2015

9:00 AM

Nabokov in America: On the Road to Lolita Robert Roper

Blooomsbury, pp.354, 20, ISBN: 9780802743633

Speak, Memory, Vladimir Nabokov’s nostalgic memoir, reflects on his life from the age of three to 41, taking us from early-20th-century Russia, soon to be engulfed by revolution, to Europe at the start of the second world war. He planned a sequel to it, based on his American years, but Speak On, Memory was never written, partly because much of that experience had found an outlet in his novels.

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