Lolita author's last novel The Original of Laura published

London, November 7 : The last book inked by Vladimir Nabokov, the author of 'Lolita', has been published – against his dying wish.

The renowned Russian novelist left instructions after his death in 1977 that ‘The Original of Laura’ be destroyed.

His son and literary executor, Dmitri, 75, apparently sealed a six-figure deal with Penguin Classics editor Alexis Kirschbaum for the publication of the work, originally written on 138 index cards.

“I had to traverse a stifling barrier of pain before touching the cards he had lovingly arranged,” Times Online quoted Dmitri as saying.

The 75-year-old explained in the introduction: “I have said and written more than once that, to me, my parents, in a sense, had never died, but lived on, looking over my shoulder in a kind of virtual limbo, able to offer a thought or counsel in order to assist me in a vital decision, were it a crucial mot juste or some more mundane concern.

“If it pleases an imaginative commentator to liken the case to mystical phenomena, so be it.”

--ANI