Speak, Memory

Speak, Memory is Vladimir Nabokov’s celebrated autobiographical memoir, originally published in 1951 as a collection of essays written between 1936 and 1951. The work traces the author’s life from his privileged childhood in St. Petersburg and his family’s estate, Darovoye, through his education in Europe and his eventual emigration to the United States. Rather than a linear chronicle, the book is a mosaic of vivid, often fragmented recollections that explore the nature of memory, the loss of a pre-revolutionary Russian world, and the complex process of artistic creation.

Description adapted from Open Library ↗.