Speak, Memory
Vladimir Nabokov · 1951
The most beautiful prose memoir in English. Each chapter is a self-contained essay, and Nabokov's intelligence turns autobiography into art. The chapter on his governess is as good as anything in the language.
The case against
Nabokov mourns a lost estate more vividly than lost people. Sergei, the brother who died in a Nazi camp, gets a few uneasy paragraphs; butterflies get loving chapters. Every page performs its own perfection, and the boy at the center remains a prince whose servants barely earn names. Sublime, and cold to the touch.
Memoir · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
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