Speak, Memory:

Speak, Memory is an autobiographical memoir by writer Vladimir Nabokov. The book includes individual short stories published between 1936 and 1951 to create the first edition in 1951. Nabokov's revised and extended edition appeared in 1966. The book is dedicated to his wife, Vera, and covers his life from 1903 until his emigration to America in 1940. The first twelve chapters describe Nabokov's remembrance of his youth in an aristocratic family living in pre-revolutionary Saint Petersburg and at their country estate Vyra, near Siverskaya. The three remaining chapters recall his years at Cambridge and as part of the Russian émigré community in Berlin and Paris. Through memory Nabokov is able to possess the past.