Nabokov's unfinished novel reappears

Vladimir Nabokov wanted it burned on his death, but The Original of Laura survived and now, 32 years later, the unfinished novel is about to be published for the first time, AFP reported. Despite Nabokov's dying wish, publication of the manuscript, which was compiled on index cards, is set for November 17 in New York and London, giving what many hope will be an unexpected glimpse of his genius.

The Russian-born writer's widow Vera had already saved his most famous work, Lolita, from the flames, and their son Dmitry, 75, followed suit by preserving Laura. Yet the family hesitated for 30 years before finally going to literary agent Andrew Wylie who negotiated a deal with Knopf/Random House in the United States and Penguin in Britain. The manuscript -- 138 index cards -- until now has been locked in a bank vault in Montreux, Switzerland, where Nabokov died in 1977.

Like Lolita, The Original of Laura is in English. The author was born in Saint Petersburg and emigrated with his family at the time of the 1917 revolution, but began to write in English from 1941. The contents of the book are known only to a highly restricted circle including the family, but debate has raged for three decades over whether or not the author's wishes should be respected. "Dmitry made the right decision. Had his father wanted it destroyed, he would have done so himself," Gavriel Shapiro, Russian literature professor at Cornell University and an author of several books on Nabokov, told AFP.

Dmitry Nabokov has alluded to the potential greatness of the book. In a BBC television interview in 2008, he said, "My father told me what his most important books were. He alluded to Laura as one of them. One doesn't refer to (a) book one intends to destroy. "He would have reacted in a sober and less dramatic way if he didn't see death staring him in the face." "He certainly would not have wanted it destroyed. He would have finished it."

What is not clear is how polished the unfinished book is or whether it could fail to meet the high standards of already published Nabokov novels. In an interview with the BBC, Vladimir Nabokov himself discussed his unusual writing methods and perhaps gave ammunition to those who say the text is not ready for publication.

The speculation is that the novel contains even more sex than Lolita, the story of an elderly, literary pedophile and a manipulative young girl. Dmitry Nabokov says only that the story concerns a neurologist who has great intellect, but is physically unappealing, and contemplates suicide after becoming oppressed by his much younger wife's infidelity. "Sex? Not much, that's not the point," he said. Readers won't have to wait entirely until November 17. An extract is to be published on November 10 -- in Playboy magazine.