Ganin remembered how he received this letter, how he walked on that distant January evening along the steep stony path, past Tatar icehouses, crowned here and there with horse skulls, and how he sat by the stream, its thin streams washing over the smooth white stones, and looked through the finest, countless, remarkably distinct twigs of a bare apple tree against the pinkish-glowing sky, where shone, like a transparent nail clipping, the young moon, and next to it, at the lower horn, trembled a bright drop – the first star. (Vladimir Nabokov, “Mashenka”)

Dear friends, on April 10 (22), 125 years since the birth of Vladimir Nabokov will be celebrated.

The name of V. Nabokov is included among the classics of world literature. For many, the work of this writer is associated with the world-famous scandalous novel-provocation “Lolita”. However, this is just one of many of his works.

Novels: “Mary”, “King, Queen, Knave”, “The Luzhin Defense”, “Laughter in the Dark”, “Glory”, “The Gift”; plays: “Death”, “The Pole”, “The Waltz Invention”, and “The Man from the USSR”, numerous short stories, and poetry – were written in Russian. He also engaged in translations from Russian to English (for example: “Eugene Onegin” by A.S. Pushkin) and from English to Russian (“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” by Lewis Carroll).

The writer himself said that his head speaks English, his heart speaks Russian, and his ear speaks French.

I invite you to read his works (Nabokov’s books are available in our library) and discuss them among like-minded people.