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Didn’t Nabokov have live-in English tutors from a young age? The Russian aristocracy was extremely multilingual.

• defen 8y ago
  Yes. He had read a significant amount of English literature by age 15, including the complete works of Shakespeare. http://wmjas.wikidot.com/nabokov-s-recommendations http://wmjas.wikidot.com/nabokov-s-recommendations
  • tomcam 8y ago
    But a fair number of people had similar upbringings without that kind of fluency. Plus, English was slightly passé to that cohort.
• erikbye 8y ago
  Nabokov wrote and read English before Russian.
  • tomcam 8y ago
    Did not know that!