Lolita by NABOKOV, Vladimir (1899-1977)1 - 1955

Paris: Olympia Press [through 1959], 1955. First Edition. Stiff Wrappers. Fine. Fourth Printing (as stated, top left-hand corner of front cover), No. 66 in The Traveller's Companion series), in two volumes (as issued), in the identical format as the first issue. (The first issue [Kearney 1.13.1), published by the Olympia Press in 1955, is neither numbered nor with any indication of being part of The Traveller's Companion Series.) Small 8vo: [4],5-189,[3], [4],7-291,[1]pp, with the longer six-page version of "Publisher's Digression" added to the third printing. Olive-green wrappers printed in black on spine and front cover and priced Francs 2.400 on back cover. (Back wrapper of vol. one in altered state, with rubber-stamped price reduction, "New Price / 6 NF. / 2 vols.") A superior set, with little evidence of use. Juliar A28.1 Kearney 5.66.3. Lolita was filmed in 1962, attaining cult status and becoming one of the best-known and most controversial modern novels (fourth on the Modern Library's list of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th century). "Nabokov almost burned the manuscript of Lolita halfway through, and its first publisher was a French pornographic press. But Lolita would go on to become a huge bestseller and the unlikeliest of American classics. Our hero, who goes by the self-mocking name of Humbert Humbert, is a pedophile. He is a highly cultured, endearingly ironic man, and he loathes himself about as much as a human being can, but he loves, and can only love, nubile young girls, whom he calls 'nymphets.' Lolita is the story of Humbert's romance - if that's the word, which it isn't-with a 12-year-old girl named Dolores Haze. Their story is as vile and obscene as one can imagine, but Humbert's voice, an endlessly inventive stream of angry, cosmopolitan invective, elevates it to the level of a tragic, twisted epic." (Time 100) N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable polypropylene sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).