The Original of Laura by Vladimir Nabokov, Dmitri Nabokov (Preface by)

From the Publisher

When Vladimir Nabokov died in 1977, he left instructions for his heirs to burn the 138 handwritten index cards that made up the rough draft of his final and unfinished novel, The Original of Laura. But Nabokov’s wife, Vera, could not bear to destroy her husband’s last work, and when she died, the fate of the manuscript fell to her son. Dmitri Nabokov, now seventy-five—the Russian novelist’s only surviving heir, and translator of many of his books—has wrestled for three decades with the decision of whether to honor his father’s wish or preserve for posterity the last piece of writing of one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. His decision finally to allow publication of the fragmented narrative—dark yet playful, preoccupied with mortality—affords us one last experience of Nabokov’s magnificent creativity, the quintessence of his unparalleled body of work.

Photos of the handwritten index cards accompany the text. They are perforated and can be removed and rearranged, as the author likely did when he was writing the novel.

The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani

In many respects, the release of a rudimentary version of [Nabokov's] last novel does a disservice to a writer who deeply cherished precision and was practiced in the art of revision…Yet, at the same time, these bits and pieces of Laura will beckon and beguile Nabokov fans, who will find many of the author's perennial themes and obsessions percolating through the story…bright flashes of Nabokovian wordplay…and surreal, Magritte-like descriptions…They will also find some small, walk-on parts that read like parodic self-portraits

Publishers Weekly

Before Nabokov's death in 1977, he instructed his wife to burn the unfinished first draft—handwritten on 138 index cards—of what would be his final novel. She did not, and now Nabokov's son, Dmitri, is releasing them to the world, though after reading the book, readers will wonder if the Lolita author is laughing or turning over in his grave.

Library Journal

The son of a painter who's fled Moscow for New York marries a ballerina, and their daughter (well, it's probably his daughter), dreamy, conniving, and amoral, eventually has an unfortunate encounter with her widowed mother's protector, then free-floating sexual and literary experiences until graduating from college and marrying the enormously fat, enormously rich scholar Philip Wild, who indulges in experiments in auto-dissolution, a sort of self-willed dying of various body parts. That is the bare bones of a story contained in 138 note cards that Nabokov left at his death with instructions to burn. Of course, it's beside the point—we're reading this not for plot but for a glimpse into the mind of a great writer. As a bonus, we get the languid atmosphere, the honed language, and that Nabokovian sense that sex and death are linked as self-obsessions. VERDICT Son Dmitri pondered for decades before deciding to release these cards. Should he have done so? Probably, yes: it's astonishing to get this last bit of light from Nabokov. Pop readers titillated by mention of Lolita won't get it, but serious readers and scholars will definitely want to read and ponder. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 7/09; the book includes removable facsimiles of the cards, though the library edition has nonremovable cards.—Ed.]—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

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