The Worth of Art’s Evolution Leading to Its Abandonment

With Nabokov's unfinished, final novel, The Original Of Laura, finally being published next week, literary scholars and apprieciators are likely to be either defending the publication (which Nabokov explicitly opposed) or siding with Nabokov. As a fan of the few Nabokov novels I've read, I'll admit that I'm a little interested in taking a crack at the new "novel." However, I can't help but feel strange about reading what (I've heard) amounts to a rough draft outline of the novel knowing that Nabokov asked that it be destroyed if he died before he could finish it. But I can see obvious merits...

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