Book Soup Blog (Free subscription) | 11/23/2009
A novel in fragments... Vladimir Nabokov wished this rough draft of his final novel burned. But his heirs have decided otherwise. The book consists of 138 hand-written index cards reproduced on every other page, with typeset text below. While the literary value isn't as high as his finished work, it is interesting to see the development of fragmented ideas and to imagine how they might have been arranged...
The Guardian Books Blog (Free subscription) | 1 hour ago
Call me shallow (actually, please don't) but I think a good cover can be a significant component of a good read It's official: the nation is in the grip of Naboko-fever. You can't open a newspaper , switch on the radio , or click open a Guardian blog without stumbling across a reference to the late great Vladimir Nabokov (see what I mean'). Like the Red Aztec Convertible forever lurking in Humbert...
Scotsman.com Living - Books (Free subscription) | yesterday
THE ORIGINAL OF LAURA Vladimir Nabokov Penguin Classics, £25 MICHIKO KAKUTANI
News Scotsman (Free subscription) | yesterday
THE ORIGINAL OF LAURA Vladimir Nabokov Penguin Classics, £25 MICHIKO KAKUTANI
Flavorwire (Free subscription) | yesterday
In the 2009 art issue of The Believer, forensic artist Barbara Anderson sketches eight notorious literary criminals, working from the (often scant) details found in such classics as Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, and Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (see Raskolnikov above). Related posts: Herta Mülller Wins the Nobel Prize for Literature Literature in Miniature:...
My agnostic views & images I like (Free subscription) | yesterday
Image via Wikipedia This is from the NY Times 2009/6/15 or last Bloomsday! What pearls of wisdom from Colum McCann, who is the author of the forthcoming novel “Let the Great World Spin.”: Vladimir Nabokov once said that the purpose of storytelling is “to portray ordinary objects as they will be reflected in the kindly mirrors of [...]
The Daily Beast (Free subscription) | 11/23/2009
All the fuss about the publication of Vladimir Nabokov's last "novel" was pointless. The book is just a collection of notes that's been cleverly marketed, says Nathaniel Rich. Let's come clean-$35 is at stake, after all. Vladimir Nabokov's...
Paul Owen (Free subscription) | 11/23/2009
Before his death in 1977, Vladimir Nabokov - author of Lolita and one of the last century's truly great writers - asked quite specifically that the early work he had put in to his last unfinished novel - The Original of Laura - should be destroyed. This work amounts in fact to not very much, just early notes and fragments of prose which do not in any sense create a book or even the semblance of one....
fredzimny ccccc blog (Free subscription) | 11/22/2009
Write text here… Related articles by Zemanta Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita & Humbert Humbert, Flora-Laura & Hubert H. Hubert (liveactivecultures.net) Nabokov’s The Original of Laura discussed, Reif Larsen on his obsessive qualities (guardian.co.uk) The dream of the Great Unfinished Novel (guardian.co.uk) Nabokov’s ‘The Original of Laura’ (online.wsj.com) Vladimir Nabokov:...
Artdaily (Free subscription) | 11/22/2009
NEW YORK, NY.- On December 4 and December 9, Christie's New York will present three sales offering over 550 lots of important and rare books, manuscripts, and maps from distinguished private collections. The first day of sales begins with part II of The William E. Self Library of important English and American Literature and immediately following is Fine Printed Books and Manuscripts including Americana...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 11/22/2009
Nabokov's incomplete last novel shows flashes of brilliance, but why it was published remains unclear, says William Skidelsky This is a book that wouldn't exist if its author had had his way. Shortly before his death in 1977, Vladimir Nabokov instructed his wife, Vera, that she should destroy the novel he'd been working on if he didn't live to complete it. When, having spent the rest of her life procrastinating,...
New York Post (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
Only literary dilettantes will be lining up to get a copy of Vladimir Nabokov's just-published unfinished novel -- the real fans will be bidding on the handwritten manuscript. The text of Nabokov's "Original of Laura" -- written on a stack of 138 ...
Scotsman.com Living - Books (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
THE Original of Laura: A Novel in Fragments by Vladimir Nabokov Penguin Classics, 278pp, £25
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
In the week that Penguin opened the vaults on one of the most tantalising of all literary legacies, Vladimir Nabokov's unfinished novel The Original of Laura, we discuss the decision to disobey the author's wish that it be destroyed. Is it an unfinished masterpiece or the random jottings of a dying man? Actor Dominic West opens the case for publication by reading an extract from the novel. Nabokov...
MediaBistro.com (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
With the world buzzing about Sarah Palin 's new memoir and Stephenie Meyer 's new adaptation, its easy to forget the other major literary event this week--the release of Vladimir Nabokov 's unfinished novel, " The Original of Laura ." If you want to read an excerpt, you won't find the book on the Oprah Winfrey Show or at the multiplex. You need to go to Playboy , the magazine that everybody...
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