| ||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
This legendary novel has been the source of much anxiety and contention for Nabokov's fans – and family. The late Vladimir Nabokov requested that this unfinished work be destroyed, but his son, Dmitri, did not oblige, although neither did he allow the work to be published – until now. The Original of Laura is about a wonderfully large man called Philip Wild, married to a very promiscuous woman, and whose meditations concern the nature of death. The novel was complete in Nabokov's mind, though he died before he could translate his vision on to paper. It is hard, however, to imagine any scholars, Nabokov enthusiasts or literature lovers being disappointed by even these fragments.
About the Author
Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) was born in St Petersburg. He wrote his first literary works in Russian, but rose to international prominence as a masterly prose stylist for the novels he composed in English, most famously Lolita. Between 1923 and 1940 he published novels, short stories, plays, poems and translations in the Russian language and established himself as one of the most outstanding Russian émigré writers. Dmitri Nabokov is Vladimir Nabokov’s son.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Must have,
By
This review is from: The Original of Laura: (Dying Is Fun) A Novel in Fragments (Penguin Modern Classics) (Hardcover)
Absolutely amazing, sublime. Nabokov's notes make it unique and a must have not only for those who adore Nabokov, but for all book lovers. Best Christmas present.
20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Delight of Nabokov (Reading is Fun),
By
This review is from: The Original of Laura: (Dying Is Fun) A Novel in Fragments (Penguin Modern Classics) (Hardcover)
I hope it will not be misunderstood if I say I'm glad Vladimir Nabokov didn't complete this novel. I love it, just the way you are.
The fragmented, the untidy, the smudged, the not-quite-laid-down-yet, the eccentric, the unfinished, up-in-the-air, down-in-the-dumps... are exactly the qualities of language that get me excited. Especially when the novel is dealing with death, self-erasure, deletion, writing, and the-state-of-having-a-massive-stomach-shaped-gap-at-the-centre-of-your-self-assessment. Nabokov fans need not worry. There are exquisite contortions of expression (that's at least 1/3rd of the reason why we read him, right?) aplenty (especially earlier on in the novel.) Why else do we read him, again? Oh yes, his riotous wit, deliciously exquisitely thin irony and bald brave explorations of undesired desire and sexually-chagrined foibles. Well that's all here too. A letter to Chip Kidd: You're the best damn book-designer out there. You can see how striking, classy, disconcerting and subtly faded the dustjacket is. Slip it off and you have a pencil-smudged hard cover to die for. It's fun. Inside the pages include the index cards Nabokov composed on, alongside a plain-text version. It's fascinating, stunning and beautiful and seductive and playful and every page felt like an event. It felt like the novel was coming together, emerging as I read. It is a masterstroke to see the smudges on the reverse of the index cards; what a little insignificant impression we leave behind us. Dmitri's introduction is interesting. I found the descriptions of Nabokov's last while a little upsetting to be honest. Especially the slightly bizarre tale about him falling while butterfly hunting and returning with his shorts askew to the hotel. I don't know, I just so love those old photographs of a curious, mad, confident playful man with a net. Laura sits beside Transparent Things, the one about the beheading, the eye, Sebastien Knight, Bend Sinister and Mary, Pnin, and The Enchanter among Nabokov's slighter works. But presented like this there is a temptation to read it as a more ambitious work, perhaps alongside Pale Fire, Lolita,, ADA and Look at The Harlequins. I forgot King Queen Knave that is great too, and sort of middling in length. Just speaking of size. It's my sense that Laura will take its place alongside these great books. I mean, it deserves to. It's much more than a well-presented curiousity. It is in a sense a culmination of Nabokov's art- a last foray into the 'venn-diagram'ish themes of power, control, writing, desire and narcissism. But it's a novel that resists culmination, fading away, effacing and evading instead. This is a very moving and funny and intriguing book.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing,
This review is from: The Original of Laura: (Dying Is Fun) A Novel in Fragments (Penguin Modern Classics) (Hardcover)
The packaging is superb. The small collection of index cards that Nabokov had begun writing to produce the framework of his intended novel has been made to look like a complete novel. But it is far from that: it is an interesting insight into Nabokov's creative process. If it were sold as such it would deserve a higher rating.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
