USA/ RUSSIA: The manuscript of the final, unfinished novel by Vladimir Nabokov titled 'The Original of Laura' to be sold in upcoming New York auction.

Record ID: 643731

  • Title: USA/ RUSSIA: The manuscript of the final, unfinished novel by Vladimir Nabokov titled 'The Original of Laura' to be sold in upcoming New York auction.
  • Date: 27th November 2009
  • Summary: PHOTOGRAPH OF NABOKOV PHOTOGRAPH OF NABOKOV
  • Embargoed: 12th December 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA8R9R1V9H4PND4EQZ3H2Q52KVM
  • Story Text: Turning 75 pushed Nabokov's son to decide the fate of his father's last novel, says director of St Petersburg Nabokov museum.
    Author Vladimir Nabokov's final manuscript will be the major draw at a books and manuscripts auction at Christie's next week.
    Reuters got access to the rare manuscript for 'The Original of Laura' ahead of the sale. Written in pencil on 138 index cards, the novel was unfinished at the time of Nabokov's death in 1977.
    "In terms of rarity in terms of a Nabokov manuscript on the market, it's exceptional because the majority of his papers are already in institutions, either at the New York Public Library or the Library of Congress. And so for a manuscript of this length to come on the market is a great event," Thomas Lecky, head of the books and manuscripts department at Christie's said.
    Lecky said this manuscript was generating lot of interest given Nabokov's international appeal.
    "His great work Lolita established him in the literary canon and people have followed him, every word he's written. And to see the author at work, which is what a manuscript demonstrates, it demonstrates their creative process and you really see the artefact of creation and the process of the imagination at work, allows readers and potential purchasers a new insight into the working mind of a great literary master," Lecky said.
    Earlier this month, 'The Original of Laura' was published in New York and London. Playboy magazine will publish an excerpt of the work in their December issue. However, there was controversy over whether this book should have seen the light of day since Nabokov had told his wife and son to destroy the manuscript after his death. They, however, chose to save it and soon readers will read the last work of fiction from the author.
    "The controversy that may have arisen over it's publication is really over as far as I am concerned. We should now be celebrating its existence and acknowledging how great it is that we have this to look at - both in the manuscript form here at Christies and in its published form," Lecky said.
    When Nabokov died in 1977, he instructed his wife Vera to burn the manuscript.
    Turning 75 pushed Nabokov's son to decide not to burn his father's last manuscript, but to publish, said Ponamorova.
    " I am very glad and I told Dimity Vladimirovich (Nabokov - son) I know that everyone who is linked with Nabokov in a professional capacity and all those who love his work - not chance readers but those who are devoted to his work, who've read everything, who want to read more - I am sure they will all be very glad," she said.
    Vladimir Nabokov was born in St Petersburg but his family fled after the Bolshevik revolution and he lived his adult life in Germany and USA.
    'The Original of Laura' manuscript is written on filing cards, which the author would use to shape his novels after working on each 'fragment', explained Ponomarova.
    " He wrote on filing cards, this was to do with the fact that he never wrote from the first sentence through to the last, in the form the book would finally take, he wrote in fragment, fragments which later he put in order on these small cards, that's the way all his novels took shape, out of fragments. here we see the same picture - some of the fragments are finished, others we can see have just been started, and were still being worked on, but those which were finished are very interesting, it's clear that the skill of Nabokov, of late Nabokov, is obvious and we can only be sorry that the novel was not finished," she said.
    The Russian edition is due out in the bookshops of Moscow and St Petersburg on Monday (November 30). The English edition was published on 22 November.
    The manuscript is to be auctioned on December 4th at Christie's and is expected to fetch between $400,000 - 600,000.
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