Nabokov, Vladimir | Lolita, first edition, first issue

Nabokov, Vladimir

Lolita. Paris: The Olympia Press, 1955

2 vols., 12mo. Light offsetting of text on pages 44, 45, and 52 of Volume 2. Original printed green wrappers, sticker with price of 1,200 francs on lower cover of Volume 2; light toning and vertical creasing to spines, frayed at heads and tails, edges and joints rubbed, marginal tear to head of upper cover of volume 1, remnants of price sticker to lower cover of volume 1. 

First edition, first issue of Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial classic.

Despite Nabokov’s hopes that Lolita would be taken seriously for its literary merit, the novel sparked criticism even before it was published. At least five major American publishing houses firmly rejected the manuscript after its completion in 1953. Ultimately, it was the French publisher Maurice Girodias who agreed to print the novel. His Olympia Press printed 5,000 copies in English in September 1955, of which the present lot is one.

“You and I know that Lolita is a serious book with a serious purpose. I hope the public will accept it as such.” — Nabokov, in an 18 July 1955 letter to Girodias

Despite battles with criticism and attempted censorship around the world, the notorious novel soared to popularity. After its American publication in 1958, Lolita quickly topped the Times’ bestseller list and remained there for seven weeks; it was the first book since Gone With the Wind to sell 100,000 copies in its first three weeks. 

“I would say that of all my books Lolita has left me with the most pleasurable afterglow — perhaps because it is the purest of all, the most abstract and carefully contrived,” Nabokov reflected on the novel’s legacy in a 1964 interview with Life Magazine. “I am probably responsible for the odd fact that people don’t seem to name their daughters Lolita any more. I have heard of young female poodles being given that name since 1956, but of no human beings.”

Seventy years after its succès de scandale, Lolita remains essential to discussions of literary censorship, morality, and authorial intent.

REFERENCES

Field, VN: The Life and Art of Vladimir Nabokov