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Why did Vladimir Nabokov choose not to buy a house?
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Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Nabokov.
Following the loss of his home in Russia, Vladimir Nabokov maintained no attachment to physical property, focusing instead on what he described as the "unreal estate" of memory and art. Consequently, he never purchased a house, preferring to live in homes rented from professors who were on sabbatical leave. Even after achieving significant financial success with the publication of his best-selling novel Lolita, he and his family chose to reside in hotel quarters in Switzerland.1