Vladimir Nabokov

Ponomareva, Tatiana. On One of the Biographical Sources of Pale Fire. 2019

Bibliographic title
On One of the Biographical Sources of Pale Fire
Periodical or collection
Nabokov Studies
Periodical issue
v. 16
Publication year
Comment

The paper focuses on one of the possible biographical sources of Pale Fire. The link between biographical details of some of the members of the well-known Botkin family of Russia and the novel's Botkin/Kinbote is studied. Two of the Botkin family members, like the Botkin of Pale Fire, were creators of a fictitious story of a royal who had supposedly escaped death during the Revolution and became an exile, and one of them wrote a book about it. One of these Botkins was known to Nabokov personally in his Berlin years.