Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)

Véra (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)

Modern Library, 456 pp., $14.95 (paper)

When Vladimir Nabokov was once asked by a fatuous interviewer if he could say how important his wife had been as a collaborator in his work, he replied, "No, I could not." He spoke no lie; it would have been impossible for Nabokov to describe the immense contribution his wife Véra had made. She took dictation for him, pointing out when something wasn't quite right. During a Cornell lecture, as Nabokov blithely read a passage in Russian to a confused class, Véra rushed up with the appropriate English translation (she was also his classroom assistant and, many claim, his grader). But perhaps most importantly, Mrs. Nabokov was the one who saved the manuscript of Lolita from the flames of a backyard garbage can, insisting "This we will keep." She was beautiful, mysterious, proud, and devoted, and Stacy Schiff's biography proves how slanderous it was to call Véra Nabokov "just a wife." Véra not only captures the devotion of their marriage but the intimacy of their writer/editor relationship as well. How nice to read an account of a writer who was not ashamed to admit his dependence upon an astute editor. How reassuring to read a passionate love story that involves not dull, faultless angels but flawed, passionate, everyday geniuses.