Véra Nabokov

Véra Nabokov (born January 5, 1902 in St. Petersburg ; died April 7, 1991 in Vevey ), whose maiden name was Vera Yevsejewna Slonim , was the wife of the Russian-American writer Vladimir Nabokov . She was his muse, editor, translator and secretary and took part in the creation of his works. Among other things, she had a major influence on the fact that Nabokov completed and published his main work Lolita . In the controversial public discussion about this novel, her constant accompaniment of her husband at public appearances helped the audience to differentiate between the pedophile fictional character Humbert Humbert and her husband.

Childhood and emigration to Germany

Vera Yevsejewna Slonim was born on January 5, 1902 in St. Petersburg as the daughter of a wealthy Jewish family . She was the second of three daughters in the family. Her father, who had studied law, was unable to work as a lawyer due to the anti-Semitic legislation of Tsarist Russia. However, he successfully built up a trade in wood and roof tiles. Together with her younger sister, Véra Slonim was mostly raised at home by governesses ; French was the preferred language in her family, and she also learned English and German, so that Véra Slonim grew up speaking four languages. She also received ballet, piano and tennis lessons.

During the turmoil of the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1920, the family fled first to Moscow and then via Kiev, Odessa, Istanbul and Sofia to Berlin , where they became part of the large Russian emigre community . In the early 1920s, almost half a million Russians settled in Berlin, not least because life in the city was very cheap for foreigners who owned foreign currency because of the hyperinflation . Berlin was the seat of 86 Russian publishers, and 150 different Russian-language newspapers and magazines appeared there. In 1923, Berlin surpassed St. Petersburg and Moscow in its importance as a place for Russian-language literature publications. Véra Slonim's father was a co-founder of a publishing house called Orbis.

Marriage to Vladimir Nabokov

Memorial plaque on Nestorstrasse 22 in Berlin-Halensee , where Véra Nabokov temporarily lived with her husband.

Vladimir Nabokov came from an influential and wealthy aristocratic family . His grandfather was the Russian minister of justice , his father Vladimir Dmitrijewitsch Nabokow was a politician after the overthrow of the tsar in 1917, involved in the republican provisional government , which then put an end to the October Revolution . His mother Jelena Ivanovna Rukavischnikowa was the daughter of a wealthy landowner. The family belonged to the cosmopolitan Russian upper class that ceased to exist in Russia after the revolution.

Vladimir Nabokov published under the name Sirin in the Russian daily Rul , which appeared in Berlin, among other things, poems, plays and chess problems . Wera Slonim also published translations in Rul , including her transcriptions of Edgar Allan Poe's poems into Russian. She was a great admirer of Vladimir Nabokov's poetry and was a regular guest at his readings. In this way they got to know each other better. On April 15, 1925, the two married in Wilmersdorf town hall . At that time, Berlin was no longer the center of Russian emigration due to the currency reform ; since life had become too expensive for many, many Russians had moved on to France. However, the Nabokov couple stayed in Berlin. Vera Nabokowa, as she was now officially called, made a significant contribution to the family's upkeep through her work as a secretary and translator as well as through language lessons. Their son Dmitri was born on May 10, 1934.

Emigration to the USA

The question of emigration from Germany preoccupied the Nabokovs after the transfer of power to the National Socialists in March 1933. It initially failed because the Nabokov couple, although they did not feel comfortable in Germany, found no country to be a suitable center of life. Their cramped financial situation made emigration even more difficult; their relatively comfortable life in Berlin was also due to the fact that Anna Feigin - at the same time a cousin of Véra Nabokov on her mother's side and her father's partner - had given them rooms in their large apartment. The Nabokov couple had visas for France as early as March 1933, but Véra Nabokov's pregnancy contributed to their postponing emigration. One reason for the delayed emigration was that Véra Nabokov, who had a Russian passport, still found work as a translator and language teacher in Berlin.

She finally emigrated to France in 1937, where her first name was written Véra , and to the United States in 1940. Vladimir Nabokov soon began his academic career, which took him to Stanford University , Wellesley College , Harvard University and finally, in 1948, Cornell University , where he was professor of European and Russian literature. In 1945 Nabokov became a US citizen . Véra Nabokov obtained his driver's license in the USA and chauffeured her husband, who was an avid lepidopterist , during his numerous excursions during which he collected butterflies. She wrote the transcripts of his lectures, during which she usually sat in the front row, and also corrected student papers for him so that he had enough time to write. The draft of Nabokov's most famous work Lolita was saved several times from being destroyed by Vladimir Nabokov.

Return to Europe and death

The grave of the Nabokovs on the Cimetière de Clarens (Montreux), Switzerland

Initially, there was no American publisher for Lolita , so the novel was published in 1955 by the Paris publisher Olympia Press , which specializes in English-language erotica . After Graham Greene named Lolita one of his three 1955 books in the Sunday Times , Sunday Express editor-in-chief John Gordon responded with an angry slavery . This sparked a literary debate in Britain, in connection with which some chapters were reprinted in the prestigious Anchor Review. The controversy aroused the interest of broader groups of buyers in the book. In 1958 Nabokov managed to break free from the contract with Olympia Press and to have Lolita published by the prestigious New York publisher GP Putnam's Sons . It became a bestseller whose royalties allowed the Nabokov couple to lead a financially carefree life for the first time since their youth. The income also made it possible for Vladimir Nabokov to give up his unpopular teaching position at Cornell University and to devote his time only to his literary work and lepidopterology. Her son Dmitri established himself successfully as an opera singer in Europe parallel to these events.

The couple returned to Europe in 1960. Tax aspects played a major role in this decision, but both never gave up their US citizenship and repeatedly pointed out that they wanted to return to the USA. Her main place of residence was the Hotel Palace in the Swiss city of Montreux . Véra Nabokov continued to worry about her husband's business. After his death in 1977, she was also his estate administrator. In her late 80s, Véra Nabokov translated her husband's novel Fahles Feuer into Russian. She contradicted speculation that her husband was the author of Novel With Cocaine , a novel that became an international bestseller in the mid-1980s.

She lived in the Hotel Palace until 1990 and died in Vevey the following year .

literature

• Stacy Schiff: Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov) . Pan Books Ltd. 1999, ISBN 0-330-37674-8 . German translation: Véra: a life with Vladimir Nabokov , Kiepenheuer & Witsch , Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-462-02842-1 .

Single receipts

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ship: Véra . Chapter 1.
2. ^ Thomas Urban : Vladimir Nabokov - Blue Evenings in Berlin . Berlin 1999, p. 74. ISBN 3-549-05777-6 .
3. ↑ ^{a b} Ship: Véra . Chapter 2.
4. ↑ Dieter E. Zimmer: Cyclone Lolita. Information on an epoch-making novel . Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 2008, pp. 18–28.
5. ↑ Vera Nabokova, Pismo w redakziju, in: Russkaja Mysl, December 13, 1985, p. 14.