LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov * Internatl Collectors Lib/ICL * MINT * Controversial

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Lolitaor"The Confessions of a White Widowed Male"by Vladimir NabokovForeword by John Ray, Jr., Ph.D.Afterword by the AuthorThe Ground-breaking Novel of 1955International Collector's Library EditionNear Mint Condition - from 1960s (?)Sure, you can read almost anything on your e-reader, but there's nothing like the feel of a well-made book in your hands...no electronic gadget can ever replace that!!!!The International Collectors Library was a publishing program from the late 1940s through the early 1960s (and briefly revived in the 1970s), dedicated to preserving "immortal masterworks of the past and significant books of our time...the great classics of fiction, history, biography, poetry, drama, travel, and adventure...clothed in bindings truly worthy of their imperishable contents."These ICL books are of exceptional style and quality in cover design, paper, and printing. The covers are leather-like with gilt designs, adaptations of historic bindings designed by some of the great artisans of centuries past, often for the collections of monarchs or other notables. The paper is heavier than in most other books; many of the volumes have gold-coated page edges. Each book has a silk marking ribbon.This volume is bound in the ICL's "Victorian Replica" binding, an exceptionally beautiful 24K gold stamped stylized floral design on the cover and spine in a lovely warm medium-brown ("cocoa," as in hot chocolate, would be close). The binding design is based on an original created for the Sonnets of William Shakespeare by Sarah T. Prideaux (yes, a woman!) in the late 19th century. The book has 279 pages (including the Afterword by the author) and measures approximately 8-1/2" x 5-3/4".This copy is in excellent, really mint condition, with almost no wear at all to the cover. The endpapers and pages are clean and unmarked, although there is a little discoloration along the line where the pastedown and flyleaf meet (it's caused by seepage of the glue used in binding many ICL books). The silk place-keeping ribbon is still full-length, bright red, and not at all frayed at the end. All in all, a beautiful copy - as near to new as you're likely to find in a book of its vintage (the only date shown is the original copyright, 1955, but this probably dates from the 1960s). It comes from a smoke-free and pet-free home, and includes a copy of the ICL's laid-in informational leaflet.Lolita has been called the "most controversial classic novel of the 20th century," which may not be a far stretch. The seller can dimly recall the public fuss -- brouhaha -- that was kicked up by its publication in 1955, although having been 12 years old at the time she wasn't allowed anywhere near it! But scandal there was, even among the progressively minded literati of the day.Lolita definitely broke new ground in its frank -- even brutal -- treatment of subjects "decent literature" didn't cover back then: male impotence and pedophilia. The novel tells the lascivious, hilarious, and tragic story of the improbably named Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged European intellectual whose, er, love life hasn't been too great lately. He finds he feels passion only for the 14-year-old (actually, she's only 12 when the affair begins) "nymphet" Dolores Haze, whom he renames "Lolita." He conceives a plot to seduce her, but first he must get rid of her mother -- and then he must get the perverse child-woman to fulfill his sexual fantasies.Despite its reputation, Lolita is literature, not pornography: it is exceptionally well written, literate, and filled with beautiful wordplay -- to say nothing of humor. While the subject matter is much less controversial, and much more widely written about, today than half a century ago, it's still intriguing -- and well worth a "read" as the novel that arguably started the "sexual revolution" in literature a few years before the real thing got going.If you read Lolita in college (or on your own, carefully hidden from your parents if you were still living at home when you did), and have ... read more

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