The Tender Friendship And The Charm Of Perfect Accord Nabokov And His Father

"In The Tender Friendship and the Charm of Perfect Accord, Gavriel Shapiro contends that Vladimir Nabokov's worldview and verbal artistry cannot be fully understood without first understanding the relationship between the writer and his father, Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, the distinguished jurist and prominent statesman at the turn of the 20th century, who at the same time was a great connoisseur of literature, painting, theater, and music; a passionate lepidopterist; an enthusiastic chess player; and an avid athlete. Although Nabokov experts have long noted the importance of this relationship, this is the very first book-length study on this crucial subject. In this book, Shapiro explores the unique nature of their bond, which Nabokov characterized as that of the "tender friendship" marked by the "charm of our perfect accord," particularly exceptional when compared to numerous father-and-son relationships in Russian and Western European literature of the 19th and 20th centuries"--