| Date | Author's Life | Literary Context | Historical Events |
| 1899 | Vladimir Nabokov born in St. Petersburg, April 23. Grows up in a rich, cultured, liberal family. | Tolstoy: Resurrection. | |
| 1901 | | Mann: Buddenbrooks. | Queen Victoria dies. |
| 1904 | | James: The Golden Bowl. Death of Chekhov. | Russo-Japanese War (to 1905). |
| 1905 | | | Russian Revolution (suppressed). |
| 1910 | | Forster: Howard's End. Death of Tolstoy. | |
| 1913 | | Proust: Du côté de chez Swann. | |
| 1914 | | Yeats: Responsibilities. | |
| 1914-18 | | | World War I. |
| 1916 | Nabokov publishes a book of poems. | | |
| 1917 | | | Bolshevik Revolution, followed by civil war (to 1921). |
| 1919 | Nabokov family goes into exile. | | |
| 1919-22 | Nabokov studies at Cambridge. | | |
| 1922 | Nabokov's father assassinated in Berlin, March 28. | Joyce: Ulysses. | USSR established. |
| 1924 | | Mann: The Magic Mountain. | Lenin dies. Stalin begins his rise to absolute power. |
| 1925 | Nabokov marries Véra Slonim. | Kafka: The Trial. | |
| 1925-37 | Lives in Berlin writing poems and novels in Russian, supporting his wife and son by giving tennis and French lessons, composing chess problems, etc. | | |
| 1926 | Nabokov's first novel, Mashenka (Mary). | Kafka: The Castle. | |
| 1927 | | Proust: A la Recherche du temps perdu. | |
| 1928 | Krol', dama, valet (King, Queen, Knave). | Woolf: Orlando. Lawrence: Lady Chatterley's Lover. | First Five-Year Plan in USSR. |
| 1930 | Zaschita Luzhina (The Defense), and Sogladatay (The Eye). | Freud: Civilization and its Discontents. | Collectivization of agriculture in USSR. |
| 1932 | Podvig (Glory). | Huxley: Brave New World. | |
| 1933 | Kamera obscura (Laughter in the Dark). | | Hitler comes to power in Germany. USSR recognized by USA. |
| 1936 | Otchanyie (Despair). | | Spanish Civil War (to 1939). Great Purges in USSR (to 1938). |
| 1937 | Dar (The Gift). | Sartre: La Nausée. | |
| 1938 | Priglashenie Na Kazn' (Invitation to a Beheading). | | |
| 1939 | | Joyce: Finnegans Wake. | Hitler invades Poland. World War II begins. |
| 1940 | Nabokov emigrates to the US. Lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. | | Fall of Paris. |
| 1941 | The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (first novel written in English). | | Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. |
| 1941-48 | Teaching at Wellesley and writing his first works in English. | | |
| 1944 | | Eliot: Four Quartets. | |
| 1945 | | | World War II ends after bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. |
| 1947 | Bend Sinister. | Camus: La Peste. | |
| 1948 | Appointed to Cornell faculty. | Mann: Doctor Faustus. | |
| 1948-58 | Lives in Ithaca. | | |
| 1949 | | Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four. | NATO founded. |
| 1950 | | | Korean War begins (to 1953). Beginning of McCarthy era in US. |
| 1952 | | Beckett: Waiting for Godot. | |
| 1953 | | | Joseph Stalin dies. |
| 1955 | Lolita. | | |
| 1956 | | | Suez crisis and invasion of Hungary by USSR. |
| 1957 | Pnin. | | |
| 1958 | | Pasternak: Doctor Zhivago. Grass: The Tin Drum. | |
| 1959 | Made financially independent by the success of Lolita, Nabokov resigns from Cornell and moves to Switzerland. | | |
| 1960 | | Updike: Rabbit, Run. | |
| 1961 | | | Berlin Wall constructed. |
| 1962 | Pale Fire. | | Cuban Missile Crisis |
| 1964 | Publishes four-volume translation and commentary on Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. | Bellow: Herzog. | |
| 1966 | Speak, Memory. | Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita. | Mao launches 'Cultural Revolution' in China. |
| 1969 | Ada. | | Vietnam War intensifies; year of the student protests and riots. |
| 1972 | Transparent things. | | |
| 1973 | | Pynchon: Gravity's Rainbow. | End of Vietnam War. |
| 1974 | Look at the Harlequins! | | |
| 1977 | Vladimir Nabokov dies in Montreux, Switzerland, July 2. | | Charter 77 signed by 241 Czechoslovak intellectuals. |
