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xxstefaniereadsxx's review
informative
slow-paced
4.0
Vera Yevseyevna Slonim was born in Saint Petersburg in 1902. She was born to a Jewish family. Her father was a lawyer, and also had several successful side businesses. The family had moved to Moscow, but, during the Russian Revolution, they escaped to Berlin, Germany. Once in Germany, her father started up a publishing firm, where she worked. This is how she met her future husband, Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov was taken with Vera, and even though he was a Russian aristocrat and she was from a Jewish family, he saw no issue with it and married her despite the fact that such a thing simply wasn't done. In fact, Nabokov was pretty vocal about his hate of anti-semitism. Vera was a rabid supporter of her husband and his writing work. They lived a long life together and she had a lot of adventures, especially when she got to the United States. They are buried together in Switzerland, which is kind of romantic, really.
I had never heard of this woman before, so this book was very informative to me. I also really like Stacy Schiff, so I was glad to find another one of her books. Check out her work!
I had never heard of this woman before, so this book was very informative to me. I also really like Stacy Schiff, so I was glad to find another one of her books. Check out her work!
spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
3.0
In a 2019 interview, Wendell Berry described his relationship with his wife, Tanya, like this:
I work alone, but always with her presence in my mind. And she is somebody I want to impress. I'm going to write this with the hope that it'll help her to love me. I feel the stakes are pretty high. I'm in a conversation with her that hasn't ended yet.That is, essentially, this book. The first time I read that quote—"I'm in a conversation with her that hasn't ended yet"—I was so struck by it that I wrote it down and thought about it for at least a week straight. It is, to this day, the best and most succinct definition of what being in love is like that I've ever encountered.
raulbime's review against another edition
3.0
An extensive biography of a very elusive figure. The woman without whom Nabokov's art couldn't have existed as it did. The love and intimacy of the Nabokovs was great to read, as well as their collaborative efforts through the years. I wish this audiobook was better though, the narrator's attempts to mimic an elderly person's voice or a male voice as well as the French accents here and there were annoying and distracted from the work.
amandacole's review against another edition
3.0
While I enjoyed Schiff's writing style and found Véra to be an interesting character, I think this book was probably twice as long as it needed to be. It's the story of the woman behind the man, the woman who made Vladimir Nabokov's long literary career possible. Without her, I'm not convinced he would have been able to stay as focused and get as much done. She's interesting, though her life was so intertwined with her husband's that I felt I learned more about VN than I expected.
graywacke's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
5.0
This is a beautiful book, but I find it a little tricky to review because it's difficult to get the nuance right. The Russian Jew, Vera (née Slonim) Nabokov was something of a contradiction - an extremely proud, intelligent, well-read, mutlilingual scholar of a sort, who proudly made herself humbled to her husband's work, as invisible as possible, except when this was impossible. She took care of every aspect of the Nabokov private and professional life, including typing up and editing and critiquing all his manuscripts, teaching his classes when he was sick, negotiating all their business activities with publishers, all the communication with colleagues, publishers, friends and family, even his family. She was everywhere in his life, and tried to make herself nowhere, even destroying all the letters she wrote him. She exists through his literature in variety of ways - physically, emotionally, intellectually, inspirationally, and has essentially nothing to say about any of it, other than to deny it, as did her husband. She is and is not Zina in [b:The Gift|8147|The Gift|Vladimir Nabokov|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1526825311l/8147._SY75_.jpg|144481], or [b:Ada|12187|Ada, or Ardor A Family Chronicle|Vladimir Nabokov|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327867767l/12187._SY75_.jpg|2138313] in that novel, or the missing V in [b:The Real Life of Sebastian Knight|71552|The Real Life of Sebastian Knight|Vladimir Nabokov|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348436904l/71552._SY75_.jpg|1180092]. Much of what made Nabokov's work beautiful can be linked to her in some way, at least imaginatively.
A biography of Vera must, maybe of course, become a biography of her husband, because he was her life, her ferocious purpose. And, to find her, who never had close friends she could or would open up to, you have look at what he wrote. So much of their intentionally obscured life is in that literature, pretty much all of it publicly denied.
I have had a mixed relationship with Stacy Schiff. Her slow, 500-page, biography of Benjamin Franklin in Paris ([b:A Great Improvisation|645185|A Great Improvisation Franklin, France, and the Birth of America|Stacy Schiff|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1316636115l/645185._SY75_.jpg|1663381]) is quietly something of a masterpiece, opening up a very a tricky and oddly effective American ambassador at the most fragile point of American existence. Her book on Cleopatra was average, and I found her book on the Salem witch trials unreadable. But here, with so much source material - books, letters, interviews throughout the decades, and the option to interview, herself, many of the key people, she is in her element, picking out a hidden character, one somewhat mythical in the literary world. Vera, as a book, is slow and immersive, long but beautifully done. The 56 pages of notes hide my true pace, which was typically about 5 minutes a page, flipping back and forth between main text and notes, which I found added to the biography greatly.
It's hard to recommend 30 hours of reading to anyone, but this one rewards the curious. If you don't want to read Nabokov, but do want to read about him, this might be your book.
-----------------------------------------------
60. Véra : Mrs Vladimir Nabokov by Stacy Schiff
published: 1999
format: 437-page Modern Library Paperback from 2000
acquired: June 2020
read: Nov 14 – Dec 9
time reading: 28:57, 4.0 mpp
rating: 4 ½
locations: St. Petersburg, Berlin, the French Riveira, Paris, Boston, Ithica New York, some American road trips, the Swiss Alps, to name a few.
about the author: born in Adams, MA, 1961
mimima's review against another edition
2.0
The only Nabokov I have read is the lovely, sweet, sad, and short [b:The Wood Sprite|8903926|The Wood Sprite (The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov)|Vladimir Nabokov|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1289404248s/8903926.jpg|13780181]. I had heard that he and Vera had an enduring love story, and I'm always game for that, so I picked up this non-fiction. Having taken several Russian Literature classes in college, I enjoyed the parts that discussed Vladimir's teaching (with Vera's help) and the issues and ideas that were discussed. However, Vera lived 89 years, and it felt like I lived every minute with her with the plodding pace of the story and the labored recitation of facts. This does not bode well for me, as one of Schiff's books ([b:The Witches: Salem, 1692|24819449|The Witches Salem, 1692|Stacy Schiff|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1431533468s/24819449.jpg|43767783] is on deck for my Book Club this year.
mcastello13's review against another edition
4.0
I have such mixed feelings about this book. I cannot deny that it is a stunning piece of writing, one completely worthy, I would venture to say, of its subject. That said, my infatuation with the words themselves eventually turned to a frustration with the woman they so enchantingly bring to life. As much as Véra was a brilliant person in her own right, the fact that she so willing subsumed herself into her husband’s life and career was something I could never fully accept. I know that’s how she wanted to live her life, but it aggravated me to no end, and this ultimately lowered the appeal of the book for me.
I did learn SO much about the Nabokovs through this book, however, and one can’t deny they were fascinating people, if not the biggest literary snobs ever. And I do love literary history in general.
Two parts of their story also hit me so hard: first, when we find out Nabokov cheated on Véra early in their marriage, and then when he died first, leaving her a widow. These moments devastated me because their bond, their marriage, their friendship, was clearly an incredible partnership - even if, at the end of the day, it always came back to Vladimir.
I did learn SO much about the Nabokovs through this book, however, and one can’t deny they were fascinating people, if not the biggest literary snobs ever. And I do love literary history in general.
Two parts of their story also hit me so hard: first, when we find out Nabokov cheated on Véra early in their marriage, and then when he died first, leaving her a widow. These moments devastated me because their bond, their marriage, their friendship, was clearly an incredible partnership - even if, at the end of the day, it always came back to Vladimir.
thoughtsonbooks's review
4.0
A biography written after its subject has died must necessarily be an approximation. This is never more true than in a case like this, where the subject wanted to be unknowable, even while alive ("I am always there. But well-hidden."). It is this book's greatest strength that Schiff manages to paint a vivid picture of Vera in all her wonderful contradictions regardless.
I knew nothing about Vera Nabokov when I started this book and I left it feeling like I had known her personally. The picture Schiff paints is endlessly fascinating: of a woman who was proud of her own opinions and quick to judge others who nonetheless thought her life's work was to assist her genius husband while at the same time denying being part of his creative process in any shape or form (even if there are countless instances of her handwriting in his manuscript), of a genius polyglot who corrected translations of her husband's works even in languages she didn't properly speak who still felt like her English wasn't good enough after dealing with legal affairs for decades, of a woman who well into her 80s absolutely loathed communism in an obsessive way, or a woman who obviously deeply loved her husband but seemed slightly cold towards her son with him.
The first half of the book was near perfect and incredibly well-researched, the ideal combination of literature critique and historical narrative (I learned things about the Russian emigré community in Berlin between the first and second world war that I didn't even know I could learn about), and Vera was just the perfect combination of awful and brilliant - I do love unlikable women characters, apparently not only in fiction. I thought the second half (after Nabokov found lasting success with Lolita) was not quite as strong and started to feel repetitive. Her refusal to admit her importance for her husband's work is fascinating - but I also got it the first three times Schiff made that point. I did, however, absolutely adore the last chapter and found the way in which Vera did not change her approach after her husband's death incredibly interesting.
Content warning: Infidelity, Familial Death, anti-semitism (Vera was Jewish in early 20th century Europe...)
I knew nothing about Vera Nabokov when I started this book and I left it feeling like I had known her personally. The picture Schiff paints is endlessly fascinating: of a woman who was proud of her own opinions and quick to judge others who nonetheless thought her life's work was to assist her genius husband while at the same time denying being part of his creative process in any shape or form (even if there are countless instances of her handwriting in his manuscript), of a genius polyglot who corrected translations of her husband's works even in languages she didn't properly speak who still felt like her English wasn't good enough after dealing with legal affairs for decades, of a woman who well into her 80s absolutely loathed communism in an obsessive way, or a woman who obviously deeply loved her husband but seemed slightly cold towards her son with him.
The first half of the book was near perfect and incredibly well-researched, the ideal combination of literature critique and historical narrative (I learned things about the Russian emigré community in Berlin between the first and second world war that I didn't even know I could learn about), and Vera was just the perfect combination of awful and brilliant - I do love unlikable women characters, apparently not only in fiction. I thought the second half (after Nabokov found lasting success with Lolita) was not quite as strong and started to feel repetitive. Her refusal to admit her importance for her husband's work is fascinating - but I also got it the first three times Schiff made that point. I did, however, absolutely adore the last chapter and found the way in which Vera did not change her approach after her husband's death incredibly interesting.
Content warning: Infidelity, Familial Death, anti-semitism (Vera was Jewish in early 20th century Europe...)