Vladimir Nabokov

GUARDIAN BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2014No marriage of a major twentieth-century writer lasted longer than Vladimir Nabokov's. Véra Slonim shared his delight at the enchantment of life's trifles and literature's treasures, and he rated her as having the best and quickest sense of humour of any woman he had met. From their meeting in 1921, Vladimir's letters to his beloved Véra form a narrative arc that tells a forty-six year-long love story, and they are memorable in their entirety. Almost always playful, romantic, and pithy, the letters tell us much about the man and the writer; we see that Vladimir observed everything, from animals, faces, speech, and landscapes with genuine fascination.

Letters to Véra

I dreamt of you last night–as if I was playing the piano and you were turning the pages for me.

‘The years are passing, my dear, and presently nobody will know what you and I know.’

‘no one loves the way we love’—this just shows how each of us love uniquely that no other person can ever love the way we do.

‘you and I are so special; the miracles we know, no one knows, and no one loves the  way we love’

‘you have captured my soul in era after era, and have just done so once again, but once again you have flashed on by, and I am left only with the age-long torment of your elusive beauty’

‘I carefully carried this heart for you but someone’s elbow knocked it down and now it lies shattered’

‘So I will be in Berlin on the 10th or 11th... And if you’re not there I will come to you, and find you’

Letters to Véra quotes

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