Relative of Boris Pasternak lost the lawsuit to the publisher where cousin Kate Middleton works

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Anna Pasternak, great-niece of the poet Boris Pasternak, lost a plagiarism lawsuit against publishers Penguin Random House and, in particular, against American writer Lara Prescott. It is reported by The Guardian.

Last July, a woman accused Prescott of plagiarism. However, the lawsuit was sent not only to her personally, but also to the legal department of the publishing house, which allegedly allowed the publication of the stolen text. It is led by Lucy Middleton, cousin (i.e. cousin) of Kate Middleton.

Pasternak claimed that in her 2019 bestselling book The Secrets We Kept, the writer who recounts the publication history of Doctor Zhivago borrowed her 2016 book Lara: The Untold Love Story That Inspired Doctor Zhivago. And the publisher printed it without checking the text for originality. According to Pasternak, Prescott plagiarized seven chapters of her novel. Also, a relative of the writer complained about the monopoly of Penguin Random House and the pressure from them.

The American writer, in turn, considered that it was Anna who used fragments from her early works on Pasternak. Prescott argued that the similarity of some fragments of the books is due to the fact that both authors relied on the same historical sources. They, in particular, were the memoirs of Olga Ivinskaya “Years with Boris Pasternak. In captivity of times.”

Prescott agreed that she had read Pasternak’s book before the publication of her novel, but assured her that her influence was minor. As a result, the court agreed with Prescott and awarded her 2 million pounds (more than 142 million rubles). Judge Edwin Johnson concluded that Prescott and Pasternak’s books are fundamentally different. He called Pasternak’s work a “documentary historical work”, and Prescott’s novel a work of art.

It is based on real events, but these real events were woven into the story invented by the defendant and were adapted in accordance with this story, Johnson explained.

By the way, for Anna Pasternak this is not the first clash with the family of Prince William’s wife. In 2020, she wrote a controversial article about the Duchess of Cambridge that forced the Duke and Duchess to sue.