Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited Study Guide

In the foreword, written in 1966, Vladimir Nabokov describes the process by which he wrote Speak, Memory, explaining how the autobiographical novel is culled from essays on his life, which he wrote for various publications. Chapter Five is the first recorded work, published in French in 1936, under the name "Mademoiselle O," and later translated and published by The Atlantic Monthly in 1943. The rest of the chapters emerge similarly and are published separately, mainly by The New Yorker, between 1948 and 1951. He collects the essays and releases the full work under the name Conclusive Evidence, in America, and Speak, Memory in England. (read more)