Children of “close observation”: A Personal History of a Writer in David Copperfield by Charles Dickens and Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov

Dickens Quarterly. 2026. Vol. 43. No. 2. P. 182–201.

Горошкова Р. Р.

This article will focus on two books—Charles Dickens’s David Copperfieldand Vladimir Nabokov’s Speak, Memory. Both works demonstrate numerous similarities on different levels: from imagery to genre. The main thesis of the article is that Nabokov modeled Speak, Memoryafter David Copperfield,which suggests similar purposes for these literary works: to describe the formation and development of the personality of the author, the creator. The journey of life, filled with difficulties and unexpected turns, subtly shapes the idea that becoming a writer is a path destined from an early age. The child who is fated to take on this challenge gathers insights from his infancy, making memory a vital resource and capability for becoming a successful author. Both texts exhibit the features of the Künstlerroman, implicitly posing the question of what constitutes the quintessence of writing, and, more broadly, the goals of literature as an art form.

Ключевые слова: Charles Dickens, literary autobiography, Nabokov, David Copperfield, Künstlerroman, Speak, Memory