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)