Spotlight
Monday, 28 April
Dmitri Nabokov
After over 30 years of indecision, Dmitri Nabokov, the only child of the celebrated writer Vladimir Nabokov, has announced his intention to publish his late father’s final manuscript, according to the New York Times. Vladmir Nabokov, widely considered to be one of the greatest novelists of the 20th-century, died in 1977. In his will, Nabokov both demanded the incineration of his final novelistic effort and named his son his literary executor, leaving Dmitri torn between filial duties and the responsibility of preserving a master’s literary legacy.
In a conversation with Der Spiegel, as reported in the Guardian, Dmitri justified his decision, saying "I'm a loyal son and thought long and seriously about it, then my father appeared before me and said, with an ironic grin, 'You're stuck in a right old mess—just go ahead and publish!'"
The manuscript, entitled The Original of Laura, consists of 50 index cards that have remained locked in a Swiss vault since the author’s death. Besides Dmitri, no one has read the unfinished work, and even the basic premise and plot remain a mystery.
NPR aired a segment describing Dmitri’s dilemma this January that offers little in the way of hope of quick resolution. Clearly, before his “conversation” with his father allowed him to settle the matter, Dmitri, who wrote the original translations of much of his father’s work, struggled continually with the possibility that he would remain the sole reader of Vladmir’s final effort.
Slate has attributed Dmitri’s sudden decisiveness to a January essay by Slate critic Ron Rosenbaum in which he urged Dmitri to finally settle Laura’s fate.
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