Nabokov's dream diary, published for the first time-and placed in biographical and literary contextOn October 14, 1964, Vladimir Nabokov, a lifelong insomniac, began a curious experiment. Over the next eighty days, immediately upon waking, he wrote down his dreams, following the instructions he found in An Experiment with Time by the British philosopher John Dunne. The purpose was to test the theory that time may go in reverse, so that, paradoxically, a later event may generate an earlier dream. The result-published here for the first time-is a fascinating diary in which Nabokov recorded sixty-four dreams (and subsequent daytime episodes) on 118 index cards, which afford a rare glimpse of the artist at his most private. More than an odd biographical footnote, the experiment grew out of Nabokov's passionate interest in the mystery of time, which influenced many of his novels, including the late masterpiece Ada.Insomniac Dreams, edited by leading Nabokov authority Gennady Barabtarlo, presents the text of Nabokov's dream experiment, illustrated with a selection of his original index cards, and provides rich annotations and analysis that put them in the context of his life and writings. The book also includes previously unpublished records of Nabokov's dreams from his letters and notebooks and shows important connections between his fiction and private writings on dreams and time.

List of Illustrations ix
Preface xi
1. Chronic Condition 1
Dream, Memory 1
Dunne and His Theory 5
Nabokov's Experiment 19
2. Dreamer's Log 33
3. M ore Dreams 95
Prior to the Experiment 96
After the Experiment 104
In Letters to Wife 107
In the Book of Memoirs 109
4. T he Art of Dreaming 113
Professional 120
Doom 121
Daytime Impressions 132
Memories of the Remote Past 133
Precognitive 134
Erotic 139
Nested 145
Life Is a Dream 147
Oneiric Realism 148
Father 153
Insomnia 158
5. Artistic Time 159
Two Prime Mysteries 159
The Montreux Novels 163
Boomeranging Time 167
Clarity of Vision 173
Conclusion 186
Permissions Acknowledgments 193
Nabokov Works Cited 195
Select Bibliography 197
Name Index 199
Index of Nabokov Titles 201