Vladimir Nabokov was born in Saint Petersburg into an aristocratic family in 1899, but his family background first, and later his personal interests, took him to Germany, England, France, and the United States, where he began a brilliant career as a poet, novelist, critic, and translator, while teaching Literature at several prestigious universities. His novels Mary (1926), King, Queen, Knave (1928), The Defense (1930), Glory (1932), Laughter in the Dark (1933), Despair and The Gift (both from 1934), Invitation to a Beheading (1938), The Eye (1937), The Enchanter (1939), The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1941) and Ultima Thule (1942) preceded the monumental success of Lolita (1955) which allowed him to leave teaching and fully dedicate himself to his writing vocation. Later came Pnin (1957), Pale Fire (1962), Ada or Ardor (1969), Transparent Things (1972), Look at the Harlequins! (1974). Among his non-fiction works, his autobiography Speak, Memory (1951) and literary essays such as Nikolai Gogol (1944) or his courses on European literature, on Don Quixote or on Russian literature stand out. In 1961, he moved to Switzerland, where he died in 1977. In 2009, his son Dmitri agreed to the publication of his unfinished novel, The Original of Laura.
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