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allabaranovsky's review against another edition
5.0
A wonderfully touching biography of an extraordinary "literary wife". Always elegant, regal, unbelievably erudite, Vera Nabokov (nee Sirin) is an easy subject for an interesting biography. The book is filled with amusing anecdotes from the Nabokovs' life together, but it gets rather sad toward the end, as it really becomes difficult to consider somebody so full of llife as either one of the pair mortal. As impressive as Maria Dostoevsky's and Sophia Tolstoy's support to their great husbands might have been, Vera Nabokov's story is by far my favorite.
nilla_'s review against another edition
It genuinely took me three months of reading this book nearly every day to finish it. Véra and Vladimir Nabokov are fascinating figures, but I’m not positive it was worth it.
The prose is clear and the trajectory of the Nabokovs’ lives is traced with a lot of care. There’s not too much editorializing - Schiff mostly lets Véra’s own words and attitudes speak for themselves, no easy feat when describing a woman that spent so much time trying to remove herself from the narrative of her husband’s life.
The prose is clear and the trajectory of the Nabokovs’ lives is traced with a lot of care. There’s not too much editorializing - Schiff mostly lets Véra’s own words and attitudes speak for themselves, no easy feat when describing a woman that spent so much time trying to remove herself from the narrative of her husband’s life.
bese199's review against another edition
DNF
I thought I'd be more engaged. Not the author's fault, just my own expectations.
I thought I'd be more engaged. Not the author's fault, just my own expectations.
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!
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.