- Nabokov notes that he has best captured the "gloom" and "glory" of being an émigré in his novels, particular his seventh (The Gift).
- All of the Russian liberal, creative types had left the motherland and they did their best to sustain a loose brotherhood, reading and passing around Russian-language literature that could not be circulated in their home country, giving the whole experience "a certain air of fragile unreality." (14.2.1)
- In these days, a German editor publishes Vladimir's still-not-great poetry, and by the late 1920s, his early novels are being translated.
- He is able to go butterfly hunting in France, and go to give readings in Paris. Life is not so bad. (Here, Nabokov uses "you and I," referring to his wife, Véra, who is not otherwise identified.)
- The second-rate intellectual émigrés in Germany conduct regular readings, which Vladimir attends, to hear blow-hard authors, promising young poets, and old masters holding onto their art.
- Nabokov, admitting it is easy to make fun of this crew, reminds us: these people were rebels, who believed in something, who were forced to leave their home because of this.
- Established émigré writers are able to live on money from grants and writing regular newspaper columns, but younger authors, like Vladimir, teach for a living.
- For money, Vladimir teaches English and tennis, translates texts, and composes crossword puzzles for a daily Russian émigré paper.
- Vladimir is able to make acquaintance with several other contemporary writers, and during this period, stays invested in what's going on in literary culture, (an interest he has since lost, Nabokov says.)
- Many contemporary authors of the day spent time with a critic (unnamed by Nabokov) who believed that neither liberal thought nor Soviet nationalism was good for Russian literature.
- By clustering around him, writers formed into a significant movement, more coherent than its members, but Vladimir finds he prefers those who are more independent.
- Vladislav Hodasevich is once such independent poet, a bitter, complaining man, and Vladimir likes him for his intelligence and sense of irony.
- The writer Ivan Bunin was similarly difficult, saying once during a meeting with Vladimir at a French cafe: "You will die in dreadful pain and complete isolation." (14.2.8)
- Despite this, Vladimir and Bunin continue to spend time together, kidding with each other and never really getting down to serious conversation.
- Nabokov regrets never having met the Russian émigré poet Boris Poplavski, whose work he quotes and admires here, and regrets having once given him a bad review.
- He goes on to name other writers he met, or did not meet, recounting how many were lost during this period.