Lolita author's last novel The Original of Laura published

ANI

London

Sat, 07 Nov 2009: 

London, November 7 (ANI): 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,pparently 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)