In turning to English Nabokov has not divorced himself entirely from his Russian past

In turning to English Nabokov has not divorced himself entirely from his Russian past. On the contrary, he has brought out a substantial proportion of his Russian production in English translation and even translated two of his English works back into Russian. This 'auto-translations' occupy a key position in Nabokov's œuvre. They constitute a living link between his writing in Russian and his writing in English. They provide some answers to the questions which arise in a study of any bilingual writer.

Jane Grayson, Nabokov translated: a comparison of Nabokov's Russian and English prose