My Italics

«My Italics» — the most famous book by Nina Berberova (1901–1993), which immediately became a worldwide bestseller. Bright, independent, provocative, deeply personal — this autobiography sparked a storm of complaints from her «heroes» and remained a unique testimony to the life of the first Russian emigration. The portraits of V. Khodasevich, I. Bunin, M. Gorky, A. Bely, M. Tsvetaeva, Z. Hippius, G. Ivanov, V. Nabokov are written by a completely free person — without looking back, without fear, sometimes sharply and ironically, sometimes tenderly and gently…
«I write a saga about my life, about myself, in which I am free to do what I want, to reveal secrets and keep them to myself, to talk about myself, to talk about others, to not talk about anything, to stop at any point, to close this notebook… Everything written here follows two laws that I recognized and adhere to: the first — reveal yourself to the end, and the second — keep your life to yourself alone».