Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
The Original of Laura: Dying Is Fun
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

The Original of Laura: Dying Is Fun (Hardcover)

by Vladimir Nabokov (Author), Dmitri Nabokov (Editor)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

Available from these sellers.


11 used from £17.68
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover £25.00 £15.99 36 used & new from £13.61
Library Binding £21.85 £17.13 22 used & new from £14.74

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

The Enchanter (Penguin Modern Classics)

The Enchanter (Penguin Modern Classics)

by Vladimir Nabokov
4.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £7.22
The Humbling

The Humbling

by Philip Roth
3.2 out of 5 stars (8)  £7.59
Lolita (Special Limited Edition)

Lolita (Special Limited Edition)

by Vladimir Nabokov
£8.83
Mary (Penguin Great Loves)

Mary (Penguin Great Loves)

by Vladimir Nabokov
3.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £3.47
Laughter in the Dark (Penguin Modern Classics)

Laughter in the Dark (Penguin Modern Classics)

by Vladimir Nabokov
4.6 out of 5 stars (5)  £7.49
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group; 1 edition (17 Nov 2009)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0307271897
  • ISBN-13: 978-0307271891
  • Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.8 x 4.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 464,750 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #49 in  Books > Fiction > 20th Century Classics > Nabokov, Vladimir
    #50 in  Books > Fiction > Cult Authors > Nabokov

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
 
(6)
(5)
(1)
(1)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Original of Laura: Dying Is Fun
95% buy the item featured on this page:
The Original of Laura: Dying Is Fun 5.0 out of 5 stars (1)
Pale Fire (Penguin Modern Classics)
2% buy
Pale Fire (Penguin Modern Classics) 4.8 out of 5 stars (5)
£5.73
Wolf Hall
1% buy
Wolf Hall 3.9 out of 5 stars (207)
£9.49
Pnin (Penguin Modern Classics)
1% buy
Pnin (Penguin Modern Classics) 4.2 out of 5 stars (9)
£5.38
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

1 Review
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Delight of Nabokov (Reading is Fun), 20 Nov 2009
By Colin J. Herd "colin j herd" (Edinburgh) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
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.




Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
Amazon, are you lying to us? 1 November 2009
› See all discussions...  
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject







i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.