Vladimir Nabokov, The Original of Laura (Dying Is Fun)

Barbara Wyllie (University College London)

Ed. by Neil Cornwell, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 2.2.2.00: Post-1917 Writing and Culture in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, 1917-present.
Vol. editors: Neil Cornwell (University of Bristol), Roman Koropeckyj (University of California, Los Angeles), Andrei Rogatchevski (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1977

Places

Russia (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

On finishing his seventeenth novel, Look at the Harlequins!, in April 1974, Vladimir Nabokov signed a new contract with McGraw-Hill for six books over four years, one of which was to be his next novel, The Original of Laura: Dying is Fun. He was seventy-five. By May Laura was already “mapped out rather clearly for next year”. It was to be “Inspiration. Radiant insomnia. The flavour of snow of beloved alpine slopes. A novel without an I, without a he, but with the narrator, the gliding eye, being implied throughout” (Boyd 643-44). Work on it had to be postponed, however, until he had completed final revisions to his French Ada, as well as a set of translations of his Russian …

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3652 words

Citation: Wyllie, Barbara. "The Original of Laura (Dying Is Fun)". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 January 2010 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=28518, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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