Speak Memory
An Autobiography Revisited
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Speak Memory
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Narrated by:
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Stefan Rudnicki
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By:
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Vladimir Nabokov
About this listen
From one of the 20th century's great writers comes one of the finest autobiographies of our time. Speak, Memory, first published in 1951 as Conclusive Evidence and then assiduously revised in 1966, is an elegant and rich evocation of Nabokov’s life and times, even as it offers incisive insights into his major works, including Lolita, Pnin, Despair, The Gift, The Real Life of Sebastian Knight, and The Luhzin Defense.
One of the 20th century’s master prose stylists, Vladimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg in 1899. He studied French and Russian literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, then lived in Berlin and Paris, where he launched a brilliant literary career. In 1940 he moved to the United States, and achieved renown as a novelist, poet, critic, and translator. He taught literature at Wellesley, Stanford, Cornell, and Harvard. In 1961 he moved to Montreux, Switzerland, where he died in 1977.
©1947, 1951, 1967 Vladimir Nabokov (P)2010 Audible, IncListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"Beguiling and superbly produced, this bittersweet rendition will appeal to lovers of Nabokov and those experiencing their first taste." (AudioFile)
- “The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness. Although the two are identical twins, man, as a rule, views the prenatal abyss with more calm than the one he is heading for.(at some 4500 heartbeats an hour)... Nature expects a full grown man to accept the two black voids, for and aft, as stolidly as he accepts the extraordinary visions in between. imagination, the supreme delight of the immortal and the immature, should be limited. .In order to enjoy life, we should not enjoy it too much.”
- What a life Vladimir Nabokov the writer led, and he describes his life beautifully. Its as if Anton Chekhov ever wrote a biography on someone else, it very much feels like this is the book he would write. The first part of the book describes so many characters who were relations and family members in the past before going into descriptions of Nabokov‘s childhood, stories about his father, including one of a duel which I wont say how it ends.
- Then he describes his friendships and his first love Tatiana. The way Nabikov writes, with sometimes very descriptive prose, is a joy to read or listen to. With perhaps the one exception of his obsession with butterflies which I might have even skipped a bit of. And of course his life has as its backdrop the First World War, Russia, the rise of the Bolsheviks and then the Dawn of the new Soviet Russia before embarking on a journey to Europe and England.
- There is a line about how a scientist sees everything that happens in one point of space, the poet feels everything that happens in one point of time - which I loved.
I love the wonderful aspects when describing his past events by stating ‘speak memory’ (what a great title for an autobiography) and then describing how the events of the past are reflected by his older self.
- Nabakov tells detailed stories in a certain moment of time that will often end with a short description of what happened to them eventually, whether it be the fate of a maid, a tutor or the fate of his father. A really interesting person and book. It only tells his early life and nothing much of his writing and much of it is culled from some of his short stories.
Fascintating memoir of a different time
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Narrative can drag, descriptive passages excellent. Self indulgent but beautifully written.
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My only reserve would be that the narrator can sometimes sound a tad monotonous, but this is rescued by the sheer quality of the writing.
Great!
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A masterpiece ruined by the reader
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