Vladimir Nabokov wrote Lolita, but he was no mere writer. The famous novelist was also a distinguished lepidopterist, husband, pedant and avuncular cutie–”a fat hatless old man in shorts,” as he described himself–and Lila Azam Zanganeh’s The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness (Norton, 228 pages, $23.95) duly showcases these facets of his character. Formally, the book Read More
On Friday afternoon we ran through some of the most exciting galleys hitting the streets this summer. One we didn’t include was The Original of Laura, the final, unfinished novella from the late Vladimir Nabokov, which Knopf will be publishing on November 17. The reason Laura didn’t make it on our list was Read More
Hugh Hefner’s Playboy has acquired the first serial rights to The Original of Laura, the final, unfinished novella of the late Vladmir Nabokov.
For years, Nabokov’s son Dmitri indicated that, per his father’s dying wishes, Laura would never see the light of day. Then last spring he had a change of heart and entrusted Read More
The UK Independent reports that The Original of Laura, the short novel that Vladimir Nabokov was writing at the time of his death in 1977, is about "an overweight and physically unattractive academic with a brilliant mind who has a ‘wildly promiscuous’ and unfaithful wife named Flora, whom he married because of her Read More
The literary Lolita, that is. Today the New School announced a full day of panels and discussions, concluding with a screening of Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the publication of Nabokov’s masterpiece.
Ellen Pifer, author of Vladamir Nabokov’s Lolita: A Casebook, will kick things off with a "Lolita’s Wild Ride" Read More
These days, calling Andrew Wylie “the Jackal” is about as lame as calling Bruce Springsteen “the Boss” or Richard Nixon “Tricky Dick.” It’s an ancient fossil of a nickname masquerading as a mischievous inside joke, about as amusing as a Big Johnson t-shirt.
Sometimes, though even tired nicknames are apt. Mr. Read More
Less than a month after Dmitri Nabokov announced, following years of indecision, that he would publish his late father Vladimir’s unfinished final novel, The Original of Laura, he has hired a new literary agent to represent the Nabokov Estate.
That agent is Andrew Wylie, who is as famous for his expert handling of posthumous work Read More
The word "dazzle" appears often and in many forms in Adam Thirlwell’s boldly self-indulgent The Delighted States (FSG, $30), which turns the history of the novel, from Cervantes to Nabokov, into an enchanted, borderless, timeless playground for the amusement of Mr. Thirlwell and any reader who succumbs to his charms (which I did, mostly). Much Read More
Vladimir Nabokov’s Laura, the unfinished novel he was writing at the time of his death, is being shopped to publishers and will probably have a home within a few weeks, according to the agent who oversees his estate alongside his 73-year-old son, Dmitri. Dmitri Nabokov—henceforth Mr. Nabokov—has rather famously spent the last decade and a Read More
While lots of bright-eyed young women come to New York to take acting classes or become publicists, Lila Azam Zanganeh—an Iranian-French journalist, amateur opera singer and self-described Nabokov scholar—has other plans.
“I remember hearing on the Boston radio, they were discussing the term ‘public intellectual,’” said Ms. Zanganeh, 29, in her precise, plummy English. “Perhaps Read More
