Maşenka

Lev Glebovici Ganin, a Russian émigré, lives in a Berlin boarding house. He learns that his dull neighbour, Alexei Ivanovici Alfiorov, has married Maşenka. She was Ganin’s first love, whom he lost long ago. Now she will soon arrive in Berlin. Certain that she still loves him, Ganin makes plans as he waits.

Maşenka is Vladimir Nabokov’s first novel, published under the name V. Sirin. It first appeared in 1926. Nabokov’s own life also took him from Russia to Berlin. Born in St Petersburg in 1899, he left Russia with his family in 1919 because of political unrest. He studied Slavic and Romance languages at Cambridge’s Trinity College from 1919 to 1922. He then lived in Berlin from 1923 to 1937, and Paris until 1940. During these years, he wrote novels, short stories, poems and plays in Russian. After moving to the United States, he wrote novels in English. He died in 1977.

Adriana Liciu translated this edition from Russian. It belongs to the TOP 10+ series. John Goldschmidt adapted the novel for film in 1987, with Cary Elwes and Irina Brook in the lead roles.