aboard the hyperion richard bolitho sets sail with an untrained crew for blockade duty off france unfortunately his superior commodore mathias pelhammartin is an incompetent egotist whose petty hostilities jeopardize the operation of an entire fleet mary is a gripping tale of youth first love and nostalgianabokovs first novel in a berlin rooming house filled with an assortment of seriocomic russian migrs lev ganin a vigorous young officer poised between his past and his future relives his first love affair his memories of mary are suffused with the freshness of youth and the idyllic ambience of prerevolutionary russia in stark contrast is the decidedly unappealing boarder living in the room next to ganins who he discovers is marys husband temporarily separated from her by the revolution but expecting her imminent arrival from russia