Lolita by NABOKOV, Vladimir - 1955

Paris: The Olympia Press, 1955. Full Description:

NABOKOV, Vladimir. Lolita. Paris: The Olympia Press, [1955].

First edition. Two small octavo volumes (7 x 4 3/8 inches; 177 x 110 mm). [2, blank except for signature mark], [6], 7-10, 13-188, [1, blank], [1, printer's imprint], [2, blank]; [2, blank except for signature mark], [6], 9-223, [1, printer's imprint] pp.

Original green printed wrappers. With "Francs: 900" on back covers of each volumes, however evidence of sticker removal over the "Francs: 900" on Volume I. No evidence of anything removed from Volume II. Wrappers printed in black and white. Spines a bit wrinkled. A bit of very minor flaking to heads and tails of spines. Some minot rubbing along spines. Volume I with front outer corners a bit creased and flaking. Volume II with a small chip along bottom of front wrapper. Some pencil marking to back wrappers of each volume. Otherwise an about fine copy of this high spot of twentieth-century literature. Housed in a custom quarter green morocco clamshell.

"[Lolita]presents a quest for eternal innocence, albeit in satirical terms. Its popular appeal as an erotic story thrust Nabokov into notoriety. It was banned from France and parts of the U.S., and its merits were debated in the British Parliament. Nabokov defended it as a moral rather than an obscene book. It combines parody, fanciful imaginative flights, literary puzzles, and a brilliant satirical overview of American culture." (Benét's Reader's Encyclopedia, 610).

HBS 68794.

$3,750.