Laughter in the Dark (Original Russian title: Ка́мера обску́ра, Camera obscura) is a novel written by Vladimir Nabokov and serialised in Sovremennye zapiski in 1932.

The book deals with the affection of a middle-aged man for an underaged girl, resulting in a mutually parasitic relationship.

Some minor characters include: Albinus is a respected, reasonably happy married art critic who lives in Berlin.

She eventually manipulates him into allowing her to move in to his flat where he resided with his wife, and she sets to working on him getting a divorce so that she might marry him and acquire access to his significant wealth.

Even when Albinus' daughter, Irma, takes ill and eventually succumbs to pneumonia, Margot insistently drives a wedge between his old life and his new, in order to totalize her capture of him.

At the premiere viewing of the movie, Margot realises how inept she was and is petulant about her public exposure as a mediocre actress.

Attempting to appease her wounded ego, Albinus convinces her to take a holiday to the south in the new car he has bought for her.

Without hesitation, he makes his way to the familiar flat and traps her inside by barricading the door, intending to shoot her with his pistol.

In 1969, Laughter in the Dark was adapted for film directed by Tony Richardson, which was originally intended to star Richard Burton as Albinus.