Speak Memory

An Autobiography Revisited

By: Vladimir Nabokov

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki

Length: 9 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

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, Inc

Critic reviews

"Beguiling and superbly produced, this bittersweet rendition will appeal to lovers of Nabokov and those experiencing their first taste." (AudioFile)

Fabulous lines!

This book is amazing, not for the story it tells but for how that story is written. It consists of essays written and published at different times and places, but it all holds together. Each chapter follows the other in basically chronological order. Let the author speak for himself:

For the present final edition of Speak Memory I have not only introduced basic changes and copious additions into the initial English text, but have availed myself of the corrections I made while turning it into Russian. This re-Englishing of a Russian reversion of what had been an English re-telling of Russian memories in the first place proved to be a diabolical task, but some consolation was given me by the thought that such multiple metamorphoses, familiar to butterflies, had not been tried by any human before.

The book covers the years from his birth in 1899 to 1940, when he, his wife and son immigrated to the US. It begins with his Russian boyhood, followed by his émigré years in Europe. It covers his tutors, his passion for butterflies, a bit about his synesthesia, his coming-of –age, his first girlfriends, his writing and poetry. You clearly understand where he came from, but that is NOT the glory of the book. What is astonishingly good is how he describes memories. What a vocabulary! Words, words and more words. Adjectives and unusual verbal constructions. It is magical. If you want simple wording, I guess this is not for you though.

Since what is so stupendous about the book is the writing, I must offer you another sample. It is at the end of the book when he is soon off to America on an ocean liner. He is walking with his wife and six year-old son up a path in a park in Paris, and they spot the boat:

What I really remember about this neutrally blooming design( the park) is its clever thematic connection with transatlantic gardens and parks. For suddenly as we came to the end of its path you and I (his wife) saw something that we did not immediately point out to our child, so as to enjoy in full the blissful shock the enchantment and glee he would experience on discovering ahead the ungenuinely gigantic, the unrealistically real prototype of the various toy vessels he dottled about in his bath. There in front of us, where a broken row of house stood between us and the harbor and where the eye encountered all sorts of stratagems, such as pale blue and pink underwear cake-walking on a clothesline or a ladies bicycle and a striped cat oddly sharing a rudimentary balcony of cast iron, it was most satisfying to make out among the jumbled angles of roofs and walls a splendid ship’s funnel showing from behind the clothesline as something in a scrambled picture. Find what the sailor has hidden that the finder cannot un-see once it has been seen.

I am writing what I have listened to in the audiobook version of this book, which is well narrated by Stefan Rudnicki, in a deep tone perfect for Nabokov’s words. The narration has just the right pomp!

I LOVED the book, but it might not be for everyone.

Glorious memoir

Would you listen to Speak Memory again? Why?

Glorious memoir, gloriously read by Stefan Rudnicki, who takes great care with his Russian pronunciation (much appreciated!). I'm picking my next Nabokov on the basis of Rudnicki's reading.

Strange biograpical choice for me but worth it

I have never read any of Nabokov's books so this was a strange pick up but I am glad I picked it up. It was interesting to get insight into the life of the writer and his prose were very memorable. His quote of he Gnomes that were in the yard the year he read War and Peace and how they will always be a part of the book to him was interning insight on how a books meaning is molded by our environment.

The master of alliteration, funny and brilliant.

Wonderfully written words, perfectly powerful performance. Reading current "literature", for the most, is dreadfully dreary.

An extraordinary book

Nabokov had an interesting life, for sure, as a member of a wealthy, liberal, multi-lingual family in pre-Revolutionary St. Ptersburg, and then in exile in various places, or at least one that seems interesting now. This is an odd book, a memoir that can sometimes bog down in tedium if one is not paying very close attention, but is--at the level of the sentence--extraordinarily and beautifully written. The narrator is almost perfect. To "be" Nabokov is very demanding, but the obvious love of language, intelligence, irony and grace of the resonant-voiced Rudnicki is as good as it could possibly be. He sounds American but not quite American. Berlin becomes "Bear-lin" probably exactly as Nabokov would have said. My Russian is good enough to know that Rudnick's isn't that good, although he has a kind of Slavic sound which intrigued me and make me look him up. I listened to it at night and it sent me right to sleep, but awake and paying attention it was just wonderful. It's not that Nabokov's life is so fascinating in and of itself, but his prose style is unique and brilliant. His chapter on his young son in various prams and strollers is hilarious and moving.

magical prose; tortuous narration

Rudnicki's unctuous, bungled reading of that brilliantly crafted text effectively replaced Nabokov's nuanced voice with that of an overly enthusiastic thespian blissfully unaware of his inabilities. The gross mispronunciation of Russian words (and a few English ones, like nihilist) would hardly be noticed if listening to a non-Russian speaker reading a daily news article. I'm disappointed that the producers of the audiobook didn't give this work the respect it deserves.

PLEASE find native speakers!

A delightful book, of course, but the audio version is , as always, nearly ruined by the slaughtering of the Russian names. It would not be difficult to get the stress correct, at least. This reader did better than most but honestly - you can’t pronounce famous generals and authors correctly? It would be like hearing someone repeat the name HemingWAY
over and over again. WashINGton. MissISSippi.

Insufferably snobbish.

What disappointed you about Speak Memory?

What is it about Russian writers who extol their heritage, their lineage? I could not care less how fancily Nabokov was raised and who is lofty ancestors were. I used to love Nabokov when I was a kid and read just about everything he wrote, but now, in my old age, I think he's a gloating windbag.

Has Speak Memory turned you off from other books in this genre?

I won't be reading a poetic autobiography again.

How could the performance have been better?

The reader captured Nabokov's snobbishness perfectly.

What character would you cut from Speak Memory?

Nabokov

Any additional comments?

Skip this book unless you are an absolute devotee.

the american accent is so wrong…..

nabokov is one of my favorite writers, and there are passages of "speak, memory" that are among my favorite in literature, like the recollection of his mother returning from a mushroom hunt.
But I couldn't get through this - the accent is so wrong for this.
I really tried, but it ruined it for me

I love Nabokov, but this... not so much

This is one of the dullest memoirs I have ever read (I've read hundreds). The narrator is very self-conscious and doesn't help the tedious content and monotony of the text. I love Nabokov and was surprised he was so bad at his own story.