Broken ties are restored again

Vladimir Nabokov tells his life three times: in English, in Russian, and again in English. For the first time, Nabokov’s memoirs in English Conclusive Evidence appeared in the USA in 1951. Three years later, a free author’s Russian translation appeared. It is generally known as Drugie Berega (Other Shores). It is a complicated novel that spans a period of 40 years from the very beginning of the 20^th century and presents memoirs and mythologisation of the biography. With the advent of Drugie Berega, Nabokov decided to rewrite the original English version. This is how a text appeared in a new edition called Speak, memory (1966). Three Nabokov’s versions of his own life are both an attempt of his autobiography and an audacity to ‘rewrite’ it...