The Original of Laura is the incomplete final novel by Vladimir Nabokov, which he was writing at the time of his death in 1977. It was finally published, after 30 years of private debate, on November 17, 2009. Nabokov had requested that the work be destroyed upon his death, but his family hesitated to carry out his wish to destroy an incomplete but perhaps important literary work. Over the next years its contents were viewed only by Nabokov's son, wife, and a few scholars.
In April 2008, Nabokov's son Dmitri Nabokov announced plans to publish the work, in what BBC2 late night news programme Newsnight later said was "likely to be the literary event of 2009." Upon publication, however, critical response was strongly negative, with commenters lambasting the quality of the writing and admonishing Nabokov's executor for publishing the work in this state.
Read more about The Original Of Laura: Plot, Background, Executor's Dilemma, Publication of Excerpts, Content, Literary Significance and Reception
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