Skip to Main Content (Press Enter) Toggle side nav
Letters to Véra by Vladimir Nabokov
Add to bookshelf
Add to Bookshelf
Read An Excerpt

Look Inside

Read An Excerpt

Letters to Véra

By Vladimir Nabokov

By Vladimir Nabokov

By Vladimir Nabokov

By Vladimir Nabokov

Best Seller

Part of Vintage International

Part of Vintage International

Paperback $22.00

Dec 12, 2017 | ISBN 9780307476586

Ebook $14.99

Nov 03, 2015 | ISBN 9781101875810

All Formats
+
    Letters to Véra by Vladimir Nabokov
    Paperback $22.00
    Dec 12, 2017 | ISBN 9780307476586

    Buy from Other Retailers:

    See All Formats (1) +

    Paperback
    –

    • Paperback $22.00

      Dec 12, 2017 | ISBN 9780307476586

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Ebook
    +

    • Ebook

      Nov 03, 2015 | ISBN 9781101875810

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Buy the Ebook:

    About Letters to Véra

    No marriage of a major twentieth-century writer is quite as beguiling as that of Vladimir Nabokov’s to Véra Slonim. She 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 humor of any woman he had met. From their first encounter in 1923, Vladimir’s letters to Véra chronicle a half-century-long love story, one that is playful, romantic, and memorable. At the same time, the letters reveal much about their author. We see the infectious fascination with which Vladimir observed everything—animals, people, speech, landscapes and cityscapes—and glimpse his ceaseless work on his poems, plays, stories, novels, memoirs, screenplays, and translations. This delightful volume is enhanced by twenty-one photographs, as well as facsimiles of the letters and the puzzles and drawings Vladimir often sent to Véra. 

    With 8 pages of photographs and 47 illustrations in text

    About Letters to Véra

    The letters of the great writer to his wife—gathered here for the first time—chronicle a decades-long love story and document anew the creative energies of an artist who was always at work.

    No marriage of a major twentieth-century writer is quite as beguiling as that of Vladimir Nabokov’s to Véra Slonim. She shared his delight in life’s trifles and literature’s treasures, and he rated her as having the best and quickest sense of humor of any woman he had met. From their first encounter in 1923, Vladimir’s letters to Véra form a narrative arc that tells a half-century-long love story, one that is playful, romantic, pithy and memorable. At the same time, the letters tell us much about the man and the writer. We see the infectious fascination with which Vladimir observed everything—animals, people, speech, the landscapes and cityscapes he encountered—and learn of the poems, plays, stories, novels, memoirs, screenplays and translations on which he worked ceaselessly. This delicious volume contains twenty-one photographs, as well as facsimiles of the letters themselves and the puzzles and doodles Vladimir often sent to Véra. 

    Read An Excerpt

    Read An Excerpt

    Also in Vintage International

    Palimpsest
    The Plague

    Also in Vintage International

    Palimpsest
    The Plague

    Also by Vladimir Nabokov

    The Tragedy of Mister Morn
    The Original of Laura
    Selected Poems
    Pnin
    Vintage Nabokov
    See all books by Vladimir Nabokov

    Also by Vladimir Nabokov

    The Tragedy of Mister Morn
    The Original of Laura
    Selected Poems
    Pnin
    Vintage Nabokov
    See all books by Vladimir Nabokov

    About Vladimir Nabokov

    Vladimir Nabokov studied French and Russian literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, then lived in Berlin and Paris, writing prolifically in Russian under the pseudonym Sirin. In 1940, he left France for America, where he wrote some of his greatest works—Bend Sinister (1947), Lolita (1955), Pnin (1957),… More about Vladimir Nabokov

    About Vladimir Nabokov

    Vladimir Nabokov studied French and Russian literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, then lived in Berlin and Paris, writing prolifically in Russian under the pseudonym Sirin. In 1940, he left France for America, where he wrote some of his greatest works—Bend Sinister (1947), Lolita (1955), Pnin (1957),… More about Vladimir Nabokov

    Product Details

    Category: Arts & Entertainment Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Figure Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Collections

    Paperback | $22.00
    Published by Vintage
    Dec 12, 2017 | 864 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780307476586

    Category: Arts & Entertainment Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Figure Biographies & Memoirs | Literary Collections

    Ebook | $14.99
    Published by Vintage
    Nov 03, 2015 | 864 Pages | ISBN 9781101875810

    Inspired by Your Browsing History

    Buy other books like Letters to Véra

    ‹ ›
    A Jane Austen Education
    A Jane Austen Education
    William Deresiewicz
    The Selected Letters of Willa Cather
    The Selected Letters of Willa Cather
    Willa Cather
    Maeve's Times
    Maeve’s Times
    Maeve Binchy
    My Reading Life
    My Reading Life
    Pat Conroy
    Orwell's Roses
    Orwell’s Roses
    Rebecca Solnit
    Dear Theo
    Dear Theo
    The Silent Woman
    The Silent Woman
    Janet Malcolm
    The Memory Chalet
    The Memory Chalet
    Tony Judt
    Autumn
    Autumn
    Karl Ove Knausgaard
    Thomas Hardy
    Thomas Hardy
    Claire Tomalin
    My Life in Middlemarch
    My Life in Middlemarch
    Rebecca Mead
    Growing Up Ethnic in America
    Growing Up Ethnic in America
    Jennifer Gillan and Maria Mazziotti Gillan
    Writing and Wrestling with the Heart
    Writing and Wrestling with the Heart
    Jan Karon
    The Destiny Thief
    The Destiny Thief
    Richard Russo
    Machete
    Machete
    Tomás Q. Morín
    Zora Neale Hurston
    Zora Neale Hurston
    Carla Kaplan, Ph.D.
    Letters to Felice
    Letters to Felice
    Franz Kafka
    E. E. Cummings
    E. E. Cummings
    Susan Cheever
    The Naked Civil Servant
    The Naked Civil Servant
    Quentin Crisp
    Max Perkins: Editor of Genius
    Max Perkins: Editor of Genius
    A. Scott Berg
    Letters
    Letters
    Emily Dickinson
    Must You Go?
    Must You Go?
    Antonia Fraser and Lady Antonia Fraser
    Selected Poems
    Selected Poems
    Robinson Jeffers
    Ornament and Silence
    Ornament and Silence
    Kennedy Fraser
    Refusing Heaven
    Refusing Heaven
    Jack Gilbert
    Kurt Vonnegut
    Kurt Vonnegut
    Kurt Vonnegut
    Millay: Poems
    Millay: Poems
    Edna St. Vincent Millay
    Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg
    Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg
    Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac
    Collected Poems
    Collected Poems
    Jack Gilbert
    Come Out the Wilderness
    Come Out the Wilderness
    James Baldwin
    The Dead and the Living
    The Dead and the Living
    Sharon Olds
    How Reading Changed My Life
    How Reading Changed My Life
    Anna Quindlen

    Praise

    “Extraordinary and wonderful. . . . Some of the most rapturous love letters anyone has ever written.” —The Spectator

    “A self-portrait of the young Vladimir unvarnished by Nabokovian irony. The earliest letters, intoxicated with language and desire, are intoxicating to read.” —The New Yorker

    “It is the prose itself that provides the lasting affirmation . . . the lavishness, the freely offered gift, of his divine energy.” —Martin Amis, The New York Times Book Review

    Looking for More Great Reads?
    21 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read
    Get the latest updates from Vladimir Nabokov
    And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.
    And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.
    By clicking SIGN UP, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
    Dismiss
    Thanks!
    Something awesome is on its way.
    Back to Top

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Raise kids who love to read

    Brightly

    Raise kids who love to read
    Today's Top Books

    Today's Top Books

    Want to know what people are actually reading right now?
    An online magazine for today’s home cook

    TASTE

    An online magazine for today’s home cook