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Loading... The Original of Lauraby Vladimir Nabokov
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Not a 'novel in fragments' as Dmitri's cheeky subtitle suggests, but merely fragments of a novel/novella Nabokov started before his death. It is an extremely interesting book as a glimpse of Nabokov at work . The surviving fragments sketch the story of Flora, a promiscuous woman immortalised in a lover's novel; and her obese husband, Philip Wild, experimenting with mental self-annihilation. Wild's sections are the most startling and original (with excellent description of toe nail trouble), but the Flora section also contains parts of great artistry (I like the description of the exam cheating techniques). The edition is also extremely beautiful and well designed. (  ) MariaAlhambra | Jan 18, 2010 |  The Original of Laura is kind of a non-book, in fact the subtitle is, "A novel in fragments". It constitutes the book Nabokov was working on when he died. Now, in The Original of Laura, his son has published for the first time the 100+ index cards that contained the various _pieces_ of Nabokov's last novel. The book consists of photographs of all of the index cards, plus a typed version of each card's contents - one card per page. Visually, the book is striking and it's cool to see how Nabokov wrote and revised and annotated index cards in the composition of a novel. Storywise, however, there isn't really much to recommend the book per se. There isn't a cohesive narrative, but the language alone is worth the investment to me. The whole book can be read in one short sitting, but looking at the photographed index cards will warrant multiple peeks over time. Although not "shaped" like one, it could be seen more as a coffee-table book. (  ) Deskdude | Jan 2, 2010 | After all the brouhaha about the publication appears this obese mouse. I welcome the choice of printing detachable facsimiles of Nabokov's index cards. For the sake of legibility, they should have arranged them differently putting more than one paragraph on one page. Having to turn a page after each paragraph is distracting (especially as Nabokov did not limit each paragraph to an index card. As it is, this edition is not reader-friendly. At the same time, it lacks a critical apparatus (despite having ample space on the opposite page), thus is only a starting point for research. Given its long gestation, I would have preferred to see an annotated version by Brian Boyd, for example. (  ) jcbrunner | Dec 31, 2009 | This really would make a lovely coffee table book. It has photographs of the index cards on which Nabokov wrote the original manuscript. Contrary to the atmosphere suggested by the published review (from Slate), this book certainly does not have "the musty air of an estate sale". There aren't any mouldy, crumbling books or broken heirlooms or discarded costumes from Mardi Gras of years past. The atmosphere of this book is quite a bit sparser. This manuscript is far from being a novel. The first few sections, having more polish than the rest, do seem to promise a very interesting novel to follow. There's some phrases that catch the reader's eye, like "[...] strelitzias (hateful blooms, regalized bananas, really)", and Flora, the original of Laura, is introduced to the reader, in a fashion. But a goodly portion of the book is what would be more aptly called "rough notes" and "scribblings". There might be a novel here; there might be themes, a plot, main characters, etc. But, if there is, the reader would have to read them into the book. If you're a Nabokov fan and you have the patience to read through half a manuscript, followed by a collection of half-written scenes, followed by pages of incoherent scribblings - all of which are interesting and good fodder for imagining what might have been - then this is a lovely book, beautifully bound, and the tacky, punch-out index cards contain samples of Nabokov's handwriting and evidence of his writing process. Otherwise, there's not much here in the way of a novel. See my other review (different from this one) at: http://daysreading.blogspot.com/2009/... ( ) Kryseis | Dec 1, 2009 | Firstly I have to say this edition is lovely. You can pop out the index cards & give them a Nabokovian shuffle, but I think I'd need a 2nd copy for that. Next the publish/burn controversy. I wanted to read it, so I'm on the side of publish so no debate here. Brass tacks, this is not a novel, its the skeleton or scaffold of a novel, what appears to be an interesting multi-layered novel with potentially one or more novels inside. Is it genius ? Well it shows potential, it also shows potential to sprawl in the way Ada does. What else is there to say ? I'm happy with it, I'm happy with the price I paid both for the form of the book & its contents. (  ) anamuk | Nov 20, 2009 | 
 The Original of Laura is altogether too knowing for its own good, and the tone grates on the ear and the nerves, so that one feels that one has been buttonholed by a relentlessly garrulous flaneur. Still, the book is deeply interesting, not so much for what it thinks itself to be as for what we know it is: a master's final work.  These fragments of “Laura” — so cryptic and sketchy — represent an incomplete, fetal rendering of whatever it was that Nabokov held within his imagination. 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. The Original of Laura can't escape the musty air of an estate sale: The trinkets that piled up in the attic; the damp books from the basement; the old man's stained cravat; the lonely figurines that used to be part of a cherished set; the mismatched, overworn clothing—all are brought out in the hope that there might appear a buyer for those sad objects, someone blinded by literary nostalgia and willing to rescue the family possessions from the waste basket.
Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0307271897, Hardcover)Book DescriptionWhen 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. Look Inside The Original of Laura (retrieved from Amazon Tue, 05 Jan 2010 15:46:36 -0500) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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Wikipedia in English (1)
The Original of Laura (Inside Spread) The Original of Laura (Open) 
