1 - Introduction: A VN Survey

Summary

I would suggest ‘talk of ’ or ‘balk of ’ as more closely related to the stressed middle vowel of that awkward name (‘Nabawkof ’). I once composed the following rhyme for my students:

The querulous gawk of

A heron at night

Prompts Nabokov

To write

(SO 302)

‘Mr Nabórkov’, ‘Mr Nabáhkov’, ‘Mr Nabkov’, or ‘Mr Nabóhkov’ are versions of attempts at pronouncing his name mentioned by Vladimir Nabokov in a 1964 interview (SO 24). The authentic Russian-sounding ‘Nabawkof ’ was reiterated in 1970. By the time of ‘The Last Interview’ with Robert Robinson for the BBC, however, Nabokov complains that ‘American autograph seekers … rejuggle the vowels of my name in all the ways allowed by mathematics. “Nabakav”; is especially touching for the “a”'s.’ ‘Nabarkov’ is said to be favoured by New Yorkers, ‘while the aberration, “Nabokov”; is a favourite one of postal officials’. Now, though, Nabokov claims (in February 1977), ‘I've settled for the euphonious “Nabokov”, with the middle syllable accented and rhyming with “smoke” ’ (Q 121). Up until his emigration to America, VN (as Nabokov has commonly been called) spelled his surname ‘Nabokoff ’. Now that Nabokov, in his works, has at last returned to his native Russia, we should think of his name in its original pronunciation:

So now let us talk of

Vladeemir Nabawkof

Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov was born in St Petersburg in 1899, into a wealthy aristocratic family with a lengthy and distinguished history of court, political, and military connections. Allegedly descended from a Russianized Tartar prince (Nabok Murza), the Nabokov dynasty remained untitled, twice when offered the choice ‘between the title of count [graf] and a sum of money, presumably large’, choosing the latter (SM 47). In the best traditions of the liberal Russian intelligentsia, the Nabokovs of the turn of the twentieth century were steeped in Russian and European culture, and their fortunate children were instructed by resident tutors and governesses of various nationalities. A veritable army of servants – maids, footmen, lackeys, coachmen, chauffeurs, and gardeners, whose children could be called on as ballboys for tennis (SM 34) – spanning the extensive city and country properties, were presided over, as we gather from Nabokov's autobiography Speak, Memory, by those most benevolent of despots, the Nabokov parents.