THE ORGINAL OF LAURA

The masterwork that was nearly destroyed, from one of the greatest authorsof the twentieth century. Dr Philip Wild, a man of brilliance, wit, fortuneand tremendous bulk, is used to suffering humiliation at the hands of hiswife ndash; the young, slender, and rudely promiscuous Flora. In a novel,a 'maddening masterpiece' documenting her infidelities, written by one ofher lovers and given to the doctor, she appears as My Laura. Dishonoured,Wild still finds pleasure in life by indulging in virtualself-annihilation, beginning with the removal of his toes. Sensing that hewould be prevented from completing The Original of Laura, Nabokov drew uphis instructions that the manuscript was to be burned after his death. Forthirty years his wife, and then his son Dmitri, debated whether to followthe writer's wishes. Now available for the first time, this novel ndash;almost destroyed ndash; is accompanied by an introduction by DmitriNabokov on his father's final great book, and the difficult decision topublish.