Glory

Glory is a Russian novel written by Vladimir Nabokov between 1930 and 1932 and first published in Paris. The novel has been seen by some critics as a kind of fictional dress-run-through of the author's famous memoir Speak, Memory. Its Swiss-Russian hero, Martin Edelweiss, shares a number of experiences and sensations with his creator: goal-tending at Cambridge University, Cambridge fireplaces, English morning weather, a passion for rail travel. It is, however, the story of an émigré family's escape from Russia, a young man's education in England, and his (perhaps) disastrous return to the nation of his birth—the "feat" of the novel's Russian title. Translation The text was translated by the author's son, Dmitri Nabokov, with revisions by the author, and published in English in 1971. The Russian title, Podvig, also translates as "feat" or "exploit." Its working title was Romanticheskiy vek (The Romantic Age), as Nabokov indicates in his foreword. He goes on to characterize Martin as the "kindest, uprightest, and most touching of all my young men," whose goal is fulfillment. Nabokov remarks that he has given Martin neither talent nor artistic creativity. Plot summary Martin Edelweiss grows up in pre-Revolutionary St. Petersburg. His grandfather Edelweiss had come to Russia from Switzerland, and was employed as a tutor, eventually marrying his youngest pupil. The watercolor image of a dense forest with a winding path hangs over Martin's crib and becomes a leading motif in his life. During Martin's upbringing, his parents get divorced. His father, whom he did not love very much, soon dies. With the revolution, his mother, Sofia, takes Martin first to the Crimea, then out of Russia.