Lolita Darling Gives Us More

(and it's not Britney Spears)

November 1, 2009

Russian novelist and short story writer Vladimir Nabokov penned his most infamous work in English in 1955. Lolita, published in the States in 1958, prior to both the swinging 70s and the anti-puritanical music video movement, is a mid-century masterpiece that provokes today the same insuppressible laughter and gobsmacking awe at Nabokov's straight up provocations and lyrical style. The remarkable way he could titillate by turning a phrase still makes it hard to read, breathe and swallow at the same time. And so it happened that Nabokov's comic gifts defined an entire legion of schoolgirls while perfectly crafting the shaggy middle-aged manchild who loses sight of his age. Palpable, real, stirring and disturbing, the story of Lolita marked a literary career that's on the brink of being revised.

On November 17th, Knopf will finally release Nabokov’s unfinished novel, The Original of Laura. Slated to be a literary sensation because of the controversy surrounding its release, the fragmented novella, pieced together from index cards, was removed from the Swiss bank where it had been stowed since Nabokov's death. Dmitri Nabokov, the author's 75-year-old son and executor of his literary estate, made the bold move among a throng of criticism. He has been quoted as saying that the decision to publish the work was not an easy one. He's also been quoted as saying he'd never intended to burn it.

Nabokov, who died in 1977 and who insisted that any unfinished works be destroyed after his death, won't be around to witness the resampling of his legacy. But he will cement his image as an author whose take on sex and sexuality goes unmatched, if not deliciously sharpened, by having a sizable excerpt of this latest posthumous work reprinted in Playboy, reportedly in their year-end December issue. This won't be the first time that Playboy, which has a history of printing some of the best literary writers in the English language, has published Nabokov's work. In addition to printing the author's short stories, the magazine featured a "candid conversation with the artful, erudite author of Lolita" in 1964. The interviewer was Alvin Toffler (and is a must-read for anyone remotely interested in wanting to see how far we've come since 1964).

No stranger to literary controversy — or flat out uproar — is the super lit agent behind Nabokov's work, Andrew Wylie, whom Time Magazine dubbed "The Naughty Schoolboy" in 1989. He is also the same provocateur who showered us with the sensation-laden Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie in 1988.

The Original of Laura has all the makings of a little novel that will be bigger than its bits — a work where genius meets death, sex meets Playboy, and a lit hit maker meets the world. NewsSip

More Soda