Letters to Véra

Readers will find the same love of language here that they find everywhere else in Nabokov's writing (Lolita). Even when relaying gossip or discussing mundane business, he wrote con brio. The first letter came less than three months after he met Véra Slonim (1902–91); the last is a poem, penned 53 years later, after 50 years of marriage. Details will be of interest primarily to the student of Nabokov's life (1899–1977), but the arc of this correspondence is clear: profuse, inventive professions of love for Véra; the games and ciphers he included in letter after letter to cheer her up while he was away; drawings for their son, Dmitri; around it all, the business of lives lived apart for too long. Véra destroyed her correspondence and Nabokov only wrote when they were separated so there are gaps of time and content. Still, the epistles show what a treasure the author was: upbeat, reasonable; personally vain but no lover of pomp; an inveterate maker of connections; an acute observer and magical maker of phrases. Scholars will appreciate the thorough editing by Voronina (Russian & director, Russian and Eurasian studies program, Bard Univ.; former deputy director, Nabokov Museum, Russia) and Boyd (English, Univ. of Auckland, Australia; Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years) which helps in reading a text with new names on most pages.