Mary Nabokova

  Mary (Russian: Mashen’ka, Masen’ka) is Vladimir Nabokov's debut novel. The novel was first published in 1926 under the pen name V. Sirin by Russian-language publisher Slovo. Mary is the story Lev Glebovich Ganin's life as an Russian emigrant and ex-White Guard officer who is forced to flee Russia because of the Russian Revolution. Ganin is now living in a boarding home in Berlin together with a young Russian girl named Klara, an older Russian poet, Podtyagin his landlady Lydia Nikolaevna Dorn and his neighbour, Aleksey Ivanovich Alfyorov, who he meets in a dim, damaged elevator near the beginning of the novel. Ganin discovers from Alfyorov that Mary the first woman he fell in love with, is now his wife. He also snaps photos. Once Ganin is aware of this, he ends the relationship with his girlfriend, Lyudmila, and begins to lose himself in his memories of his time in Russia with Mary that Ganin says were "perhaps the most joyful moments in his entire life". Enthralled by his vision of Mary and in a state of denial that he can let Alfyorov take her away, Ganin contrives to reunite with Mary, who he believes is still loving him.