"[A]lthough THE ORIGINAL OF LAURA has, at long last, been properly published...there's not enough of it to be properly reviewed, as Nabokov himself would surely understand....[I]t's simply fragments of a novel....The style of Nabokov's very last work hardly seems 'unprecedented' either, but especially for an aging, ailing man, he was in fine form. This, rather than imputed formal innovations or supposed insights into his writing process...makes THE ORIGINAL OF LAURA worth the frustration of reading it." "Dmitri [Nabokov]...explains in the introduction that he feels that his father did not really want him to burn [the manuscript for THE ORIGINAL OF LAURA]. The obvious retort here is that he did want that, and said as much to his wife, explicitly. But dead men make no complaints, and Dmitri and Knopf have seen fit to publish a beautiful book from the messy little cards....Fans of Nabokov will find plenty to revel in, especially the clever wordplay and circuitous, multi-leveled plot." "THE ORIGINAL OF LAURA is a glorious mess....[It] offers just enough of the familiar Nabokovian pleasures to be enjoyable as a straightforward read....But its deepest pleasure is the one Nabokov wanted us never to have: a peek at the imperfect, ordering intelligence behind all of his finished products. This glimpse shouldn't hurt his reputation; if anything it should help. It's like seeing an unfinished Michelangelo sculpture....It humanizes the perfection." "The first effect of reading THE ORIGINAL OF LAURA gives less pleasure than a certain squeamishness....Although we might hope that Nabokov was on his way to a great book, it is a pity that his instructions were ignored and the novel survived in such a form. English professors may assign THE ORIGINAL OF LAURA to their students someday, but it is really better suited to a college ethics class."