In this collection of thirteen stories, a number of which have never before been translated into English, the author has written with tenderness and irony of a generation of exhiles. Some are Russian emigres living in Paris or Berlin, trying to reconstruct their lives from fragments of remembered truth, beautry, and honor. Others are simply men and women adrift in an alien world where the values they once lived by have disappeared. Here is the blend of comedy and melancholy, the pointed, witty, but compassionate writing that characterize the early Nabokov.

Contents:

• A Russian Beauty
• The Leonardo
• Torpid Smoke
• Breaking the News
• Lips to Lips
• The Visit to the Museum
• An Affair of Honor
• Terra Incognita
• A Dashing Fellow
• Ultima Thule
• Solus Rex
• The Potato Elf
• The Circle