The Original of Laura

The Original of Laura is Vladimir Nabokovs final incredible unfinished novel in fragments Dr Philip Wild a man of brilliance wit fortune and tremendous bulk is used to suffering humiliations at the hands of his wife the younger slender and rudely promiscuous Flora But in a novel a maddening masterpiece documenting her infidelities written by one of her lovers and given to the doctor she appears as My Laura Dishonoured Wild still finds pleasure in life by indulging in selfannihilation beginning with the removal of his toes Vladimir Nabokov 18991977 was born in St Petersburg He wrote his first literary works in Russian but rose to international prominence as a masterly prose stylist for the novels he composed in English most famously Lolita Between 1923 and 1940 he published novels short stories plays poems and translations in the Russian language and established himself as one of the most outstanding Russian migr writers Dmitri Nabokov was Vladimir Nabokovs son