Nabokov’s last novel to be published in Russia

Vladimir Nabokov’s last unfinished novel, “The Original of Laura,” will be published in Russia after the American and English editions, the releases of which are planned for November 17, 2009.

The Azbuka publishing house, which has exclusive rights to the novel in Russia, has already confirmed the official translation of the latest novel’s title. The title was coordinated with the translator of the novel, the editor and the writer’s son, Dmitry Nabokov. The exact date of the release has not yet been announced.

The last novel by the famous bilingual Nobel Prize winner already has a story of its own. Before he died in 1977, Nabakov asked his wife to burn the manuscript, but Vera Nabokova never dared to. Neither did Dmitry, the writer’s only son.

A draft of the novel, the only copy in existence, was written on 138 cards and for 30 long years was kept in a bank safe in Switzerland. In April 2009 Dmitry Nabokov announced that “The Original of Laura” would be published.

As the writer’s son had previously told journalists, the main character of the book is an unattractive overweight scientist named Philip Wild. His wife Flora is inclined to avid libertinism and infidelity. Wild married her only because she looked like the woman he once had fallen in love with. Throughout the novel, the lead character thinks about committing suicide.

Vladimir Nabokov managed in his own lifetime to have his books become classics in two literatures, English and Russian. He emigrated from Russia with his family in 1917. They settled briefly in England, where Nabokov enrolled in Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1922 Nabokov moved to Berlin and then to the US, where he became a world famous novelist and short story writer.