The chronology from the Library of America edition of his works notes the following:
1902 Nabokov and Sergey learn English from Rachel Home, first of a succession of British governesses. Mother tells him to remember details they admire on walks in country, and reads him fairy tales and adventure stories in English at bedtime.
1903 In St. Petersburg Nabokov toboggans and takes long walks with new English governess; reads English juvenile magazines Chatterbox and Little Folks (has not yet learned to read Russian).
On Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 4:36 PM, Emily Sours
<talulahgosh@gmail.com> wrote:
Someone pointed out to me today that English was Nabokov's first language. As he's Russian, I had no idea this was the case. His wiki says: "The family spoke Russian, English, and French in their household, and
Nabokov was trilingual from an early age. In fact, much to his patriotic
father's chagrin, Nabokov could read and write English before he could
Russian. "
Is this true? Being wikipedia, it should have a citation for this statement, but it doesn't. He may have mentioned this in Speak Memory though, that's one of his books that I haven't read yet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Nabokov
Emily
A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted. You should live several lives while reading it.
-William Styron
All private editorial communications, without
exception, are
read by both co-editors.
All private editorial communications, without
exception, are
read by both co-editors.