"Mademoiselle O" is a memoir by

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bor ...

about his eccentric Swiss-French

governess A governess is a largely obsolete term for a woman employed as a private tutor, who teaches and trains a child or children in their home. A governess often lives in the same residence as the children she is teaching. In contrast to a nanny, ...

Publication history

It was first written and published in French in '' Mesures'' (vol. 2, no. 2, 1936) and subsequently in English (translated by Nabokov and Hilda Ward) in ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'' (January 1943). It was first anthologized in '' Nine Stories'' (1947) and was later reproduced in ''

Nabokov's Dozen ''Nabokov's Dozen'' (1958) a collection of 13 short stories by Vladimir Nabokov previously published in American magazines. (Nine of them also previously appeared in '' Nine Stories''.) All were later reprinted within ''The Stories of Vladimir N ...

'' (1958) and ''

The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov ''The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov'' (in some British editions, ''The Collected Stories'') is a posthumous collection of every known short story that Vladimir Nabokov ever wrote, with the exception of "The Enchanter". In the current printing of this ...

.'' It became a chapter of ''Conclusive Evidence'' (1951, also titled ''

Speak, Memory ''Speak, Memory'' is an autobiographical memoir by writer Vladimir Nabokov. The book includes individual essays published between 1936 and 1951 to create the first edition in 1951. Nabokov's revised and extended edition appeared in 1966. Scop ...

'') and subsequently of ''Drugie Berega'' (1954, translated into Russian by the author) and ''Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited'' (1966).All editions of the autobiography: Juliar, item A26, pp.196–211.

Notes

1936 short stories Short stories by Vladimir Nabokov Works originally published in French magazines Works originally published in literary magazines {{1930s-story-stub