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The Fate Of Nabokov's Last Work

When Vladimir Nabokov gave up the ghost he left behind an unfinished work called The Original of Laura, and with it a dilemma for his family. He asked them to destroy the manuscript.Since his death, his wife and son, Vera and Dimitri, have kept Laura in a Swiss vault, unable to destroy the work of a..

Andrew Price
By Andrew PriceApr 30, 2008
Andrew Price
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When Vladimir Nabokov gave up the ghost he left behind an unfinished work called The Original of Laura, and with it a dilemma for his family. He asked them to destroy the manuscript.

Since his death, his wife and son, Vera and Dimitri, have kept Laura in a Swiss vault, unable to destroy the work of a genius, but unwilling to defy Vladimir's dying wishes.

Now the fate of the work has been decided-and by Vladimir himself, from beyond the grave.

"My father appeared before me and said with an ironic grin: 'You're stuck in a right old mess. Just go ahead and publish,'" the younger Nabokov, who is his father's literary executor, told [Der Spiegel].

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