Subject
Fwd: 'Lolita' Still Seduces Readers ...
From
Date
Body
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4846479[2]
50 Years Later, 'Lolita' Still Seduces Readers
NPR, D.C. - 2 hoursago
That's the opening line of VLADIMIR NABOKOV\'S groundbreaking novel
Lolita -- the story of a 37-year-old man's emotional and sexual love
affair with a 12-year ...
[3] Authors
50 YEARS LATER,\'LOLITA\' STILL SEDUCES READERS
by Madeleine Brand[4]Audio for thisstory will be available at
approx. 3:00 p.m. ET
Sue Lyon as thetitle character in Stanley Kubrick's 1961 film
version of _Lolita_, with ascreenplay written by Nabokov. Warner
Bros. © 2001
* VIDEO:Humbert Humbert first meets Lolita in a classic scene from
the StanleyKubrick film.
Hulton-Deutsch Collection
Vladimir Nabokovin Rome in 1959, after _Lolita_ made him an
international celebrity.CORBIS © 2005
* WEB EXTRA: Nabokov reads the central poem from_Lolita_ to a rapt
audience, April 1964.
Hulton-DeutschCollection
Customers in a London bookstore with copies of _Lolita_after its
1959 release in Great Britain. CORBIS © 2005
AN AUDIO\'LOLITA\'
Hear actor Jeremy Irons read from the unabridged, 10-CDRandom House
audio version of Nabokov's book:
* It begins:'Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.'
* ...and it comes to an end:'This then is my story.'
Day to Day[5], September 14, 2005 ·"Lolita, light of my life, fire
of my loins. My sin, mysoul."
That's the opening line of Vladimir Nabokov'sgroundbreaking novel
_Lolita_ -- the story of a 37-year-old man'semotional and sexual
love affair with a 12-year-old girl.
Whenthe book was first published 50 years ago, it was considered by
some to beobscene, to others a masterpiece of fiction. Over the
course of fivedecades, the "masterpiece" vote has won out, more or
less -- buteven two generations later, there's still a lot of
debate.
Fansof the book say the racy nature of the plot is secondary to the
true artof the words. It's written in the voice of a man driven to
murder by hisurge to love and control the young girl. Nabokov's
prose alone can seducereaders into seeing the man's otherwise
outrageous and criminal point ofview.
Nabokov, who fled persecution in Russia and in Nazi Europe,was a
professor of Russian literature at Cornell University in Ithaca,N.Y.
when he wrote _Lolita_, and many of the places described in thebook
are easily recognizable by residents today.
The author didtremendous amount of research to get the details of
American life right."He would do things like travel on the buses
around Ithaca and recordphrases, in a little notebook, from young
girls that he heard coming backfrom school," says Nabokov biographer
Brian Boyd.
The germof _Lolita_ was created in 1939 -- a short story, in
Russian, about a manwho marries a woman to get to her daughter. It
was not well received, butthe idea never left him. And a decade
later, Nabokov took up the storyagain in America. And again, some of
his friends were horrified.
The book was rejected by five American publishers, afraid they'd be
prosecuted on obscenity charges. It was first published in France by
Olympia Press, which put out some serious books and lots of
pornography.
Nabokov didn't know that -- he was just relievedsomeone agreed to
publish his book. And so _Lolita_ debuted, clad in aplain green
cover, in Paris, on Sept. 15, 1955. It was published inAmerica three
years later and was an immediate hit.
Within ayear after the U.S. debut of _Lolita_, Nabokov left
Cornell. He had earnedenough money from the book that he could
afford to stop teaching and writefull time, and he spent the rest of
his life in Montreux, Switzerland._Lolita_ has so far sold 50 million
copies, and has been translated intodozens of languages.
RELATED NPR STORIES
* April 25,2004Possible Source for Nabokov's 'Lolita'
* April 23, 1999VladmirNabokov
Links:
------
[1] http://www.npr.org/
[2] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4846479
[3] http://www.npr.org/
[4] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=2100281
[5] http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=17
----- End forwarded message -----