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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Vanessa Thorpe Arts and media correspondent

Dr Zhivago’s heroine takes centre stage in plagiarism row

Julie Christie as Lara in David Lean’s film Dr Zhivago
Julie Christie as Lara in David Lean’s 1965 film Dr Zhivago. Photograph: MGM/Allstar

Two authors are to go head to head in the high court in London this week in a bitter literary plagiarism row that revolves around the love life one of the most romantic of all heroines, Lara Antipova from the Russian epic Dr Zhivago.

British author Anna Pasternak, a descendant of the Russian author of the original novel, will argue in court that substantial sections of her own factual account of the real-life inspiration for the character of Lara have since been copied and exploited in an American novel.

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