Vladimir Nabokov, a Russian émigré who began writing in English in middle age, is considered one of the most brilliant and inventive writers of the twentieth century. A trilingual author, equally competent in Russian, English, and French, Nabokov wrote prodigiously during the course of his seventy-eight years, producing a body of work that, when collected, will fill an estimated forty volumes. Though he began as a poet, Nabokov quickly branched into writing of almost every imaginable kind, including fiction, drama, autobiography, translations, essays, literary criticism, and even, on occasion, scientific studies of butterflies and collections of chess problems. His writing remains so distinctive that several critics have deemed him not part of any family but a species unto himself, and often cite Lolita, his best-known work, as a prime example of truly original invention. "He is a major force in the contemporary novel" fictionist Anthony Burgess...