Nabokov’s Last Novel to be published

[D. Allan]

Arts, Briefly

Son Plans to Publish Nabokov’s Last Novel

Compiled by LAWRENCE VAN GELDER

Published: April 28, 2008

Dmitri Nabokov plans to defy the wishes of his father, Vladimir Nabokov, by publishing his father’s final, incomplete novel rather than destroying the manuscript by fire. The Guardian of London reported that Dmitri, 73, told the German magazine Der Spiegel: “I’m a loyal son and thought long and seriously about it. Then my father appeared before me and said with an ironic grin: ‘You’re stuck in a right old mess. Just go ahead and publish.’ ” For three decades the fragments of the novel, “The Original of Laura,” on a collection of 50 index cards, have been in a bank vault in Switzerland, where Vladimir Nabokov, the author of “Lolita” and “Pale Fire,” died in 1977. Dmitri Nabokov, his father’s literary executor, once described it as “the most concentrated distillation” of his father’s creativity. In an interview with the BBC, Dmitri Nabokov said he found “very disturbing” the thought that no one would ever read the manuscript. But he said he would not complete it himself. “I would never presume to finish my father’s works for him because there are so many strands and threads and thoughts there that perhaps might have been developed further,” he said. “And simply I don’t have the right.”

nytimes.com/2008/04/28/books/

[John317]

Wonderful news. He's one of my favorite writers. Sounds like it's probably going to be a relatively short book. Doesn't say how close Nabokov came to completing it.

It might be an interesting challenge for someone to write an imaginative ending of the novel.