Over the weekend I read that Vladimir Nabokov requested in his will that his unfinished novel, The Original of Laura, should be destroyed on his death, saying that he abhorred the idea of his readers seeing a work he had completed “in my mind” but not on paper.
The decision is in the hands of Nabokov’s son, which at one point during this unfolding literary saga called it “the most concentrated distillation of [my father's] creativity.” Apparently the Laura manuscript consists of approximately 50 index cards covered in V.N.’s handwriting. It exists in a safe-deposit box whose location is known to only two people. If what I’ve learned is true, it’s likely never to see the light of day—indeed, it may well be destroyed.
Before he died in 1977, Nabokov made clear that he wanted those cards destroyed.
Ron Rosenbaum dramatically described Dimitri’s dilemma:
It is a Hamlet-like dilemma he faced. His stern regal father, like the ghost in Hamlet, demanding posthumous fulfillment of a blood-chilling pledge. Dmitri has been enjoined with carrying out the last act of one of the most demanding purists in literary history, a man who would have, his son must know, felt pain at the release of a maimed or not fully formed version of his last words.
This blog is perhaps the last place Dimitri Nabokov is going to seek for advice but just in case he stumbles upon I kindly advise him to publish the work off/online. Imagine what an amazing wiki project this can be. Once published, the manuscript will be taken by so many clever people to a completely unexpected shores.
It is such a precious Nabokovphiles treasure, it will be such a stupid, selfish act to destroy - if Nabokov had wanted it, he would have destroyed it himself so if he couldn’t…..no body should.
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