Korol', dama, valet. Berlin, 1928 (King, Queen, Knave, 1968)

Korol', dama, valet [King, Queen, Knave] was, like Mashen'ka, conceived, executed, and published in just over a year, with one excerpt appearing in Rul'. It focuses on the lives of three Germans: Franz; his aunt Martha, with whom he is carrying on an affair; and his uncle Kurt Dreyer, whom they plot to murder. Julian Connolly notes that in 1928 one critic "remarked that the novel seems at times to read like a translation from German, although he finds no traces of 'Germanisms' in the text." It was a great popular success, engendering positive reviews, an evening of public debate in Berlin, and a remunerative sale of German rights that enabled Nabokov and Véra to settle their debts. With the balance that remained, they embarked on their first butterfly excursion together, to the Pyrénées.

Nabokov's biographer Brian Boyd claims that in reviewing Dmitri Nabokov's literal translation of Korol', dama, valet, Nabokov "altered the novel at every level." Connolly's comparison of the two versions concludes that "[Nabokov's] revisions not only tighten the work in terms of plot and characterization, they significantly expand the richness of its literary and metaliterary allusiveness." Nabokov defends these alterations in the foreword: "Very soon I asserted [ascertained] that the original sagged considerably more than I had expected. . . . [M]y main purpose in making [the "little changes"] was not to beautify a corpse but rather to permit a still breathing body to enjoy certain innate capacities which inexperience and eagerness, the haste of thought and the sloth of word had denied it formerly. Within the texture of the creature, those possibilities were practically crying to be developed or teased out."

The items listed below pertain to Nabokov's life and career and are the contents of the exhibition at the Humanities and Social Sciences Library, on view from April 23 through August 21, 1999. This checklist, primarily of items from the Library's Nabokov Archive, is included here to provide a sense of the rich holdings in this special collection.

V. Sirin [Vladimir Nabokov]
Korol', dama, valet
Berlin: Slovo, 1928
Berg Collection

Vladimir Nabokov?
Sketch for jacket design of King, Queen, Knave
Pen-and-ink drawing, ca. 1967
Berg Collection

Vladimir Nabokov
"King Queen Knave. Expose of the Novel"
Typescript with Nabokov's holograph corrections, signed by Véra, undated
Berg Collection

Vladimir Nabokov
"King, Queen, Knave"
Typescript draft, translated by Dmitri Nabokov, with Vladimir Nabokov's holograph corrections, ca. 1967
Berg Collection

Vladimir Nabokov
"King, Queen, Knave"
Holograph note on index card, dated Dec. 2, 1967
Berg Collection