Nabokov, distinguished writer, professor, critic, entomologist, is convinced “only fools” would find Lolita obscene….
Contrary to best-selling traditions, the erotica taper off sharply in the second half, which leads Nabokov to believe “there’s no danger of the book being pursued for its immorality.”…
Nabokov…predicted:
“Those who keep looking for spicy bits will not find them. They will not be able to read the book through—they will get bored too soon. The only thing that might be attractive is the diary H.H. keeps. And then, who would be attracted by a 12-year-old girl?”…
“If a few elderly gentlemen read it in that spirit, that’s surely their business.”
Nabokov expounded this theory at a Harvard Club cocktail party. He was accompanied by his wife, Vera, a slender, fair-skinned, white-haired woman in no way reminiscent of Lolita. One guest commented that this was reassuring.
“Yes,” said Mrs. Nabokov, smiling. “It’s the main reason why I’m here.”
Her husband chuckled.
“I toyed with the idea of borrowing a ‘Lolita’ ”—he held out a hand at waist-height—“from one of my friends for this occasion.”
…he has never heard of Peyton Place.1
“What is it?” he inquired. “A novel.” “Who wrote it?”
* “Lolita Obscene? Not to Its Author,” New York Post, Aug. 6, 1958, 10. Author unknown. For the impending first American publication of Lolita, Aug. 18, 1958. The first edition of the novel, in English but published in Paris, had been banned in France in late 1956, unbanned in Jan. 1958, and banned again, under another law, in July 1958.