Books

1955. Paris: The Olympia Press. 1955. Small 8vo, 2 vols.; original green wrappers printed in black and white; pp. I: [viii], 7-188, [4]; II: [viii], 9-223, [1]; edges and spines rubbed, creased along the backstrips; a little toning, and small corner crease to the lower corner of volume 2; very good copies, still. The true first edition of Nabokov's best-known title. Nabokov took five years to write Lolita, and it was finally published in 1953. Due to the subject matter, he originally intended to publish it pseudonymously, though with the inclusion of the character Vivian Darkbloom (an anagram for Vladamir Nabokov). The manuscript was, perhaps unsurprisingly, turned down by Viking, Simon & Schuster, New Directions, Farrar-Straus and Doubleday, and was subsequently banned for two years until Graham Greene came out in its favour, calling it “one of the three best books of 1955” (The London Times). This may not sound like high praise, but his approval led to the lift of the ban…

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.