On the Book Radar: “The Original of Laura,” Nabokov’s Final Work

Against his late father’s instructions to burn the manuscript, Dmitri Nabokov has decided to publish Vladimir Nabokov’s final work, “The Original of Laura,” BBC News reports. The novel, which was held in a Swiss bank vault for 30 years, is due out on November 3.

Nabokov, who died in 1977, wrote “Laura” on 138 index cards which will be reproduced with an accompanying transcript of the text. According to the book’s editor, “Laura” tells the story who of a man who is obsessed with his wife’s dalliances and is said to strike a dark and humours tone.

Penguin Classics, who will publish the work in Britain, also plans to publish a collection of Nabokov’s poems which have never been translated into English and correspondence between Nabokov and his wife.

Luckily for the literary world, Dmitri didn’t burn “Laura.” Interestingly, his father also tried to burn the manuscript of the novel for which he was most famous–“Lolita.”