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Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
Nabokov, Vladimir (1899-1977) Lolita.
Paris: The Olympia Press, 1955.
First edition, first issue with "Francs: 900" on the back wrappers of each, two octavo volumes; bound in original green printed wrappers (slight rubbing to wrappers); together in a custom green morocco-backed clamshell case by Kobetsky Fine Book Boxes; 7 x 4 3/8 in.
Nabokov's controversial masterpiece was rejected numerous times by many American and British publishers before it was accepted by Paris's Olympia Press in 1955. Although reviewed in the press as "the filthiest book I have ever read," and "sheer unrestrained pornography," Nabokov staunchly defended his work to the press, publishers, and his friends "I know Lolita is my best work so far," in a 1962 BBC interview, and "Lolita is a special favorite of mine. It was my most difficult book-- the book that treated of a theme which was so distant, so remote, from my own emotional life that it gave me a special pleasure to use my combinational talent to make it real." Today, the novel sits in a new light entirely, with unreliable Humbert Humbert judged by another generation of critics. The subtlety of Nabokov's portrayal, which many readers take in earnest, was always meant as a depiction of a deranged and broken predator, and the triumphant escape of a young survivor.
