Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0001826, Mon, 17 Mar 1997 08:36:35 -0800

Subject
LOLITA (novel) & Censorship
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. NABOKV-L thanks Sandy Klein for submitting the item below.
AS may be seen, WWW pieces do not come out tidily on formatless E-mail.
None the less, the information is extractable. Checking out the WWW
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<h1>Nabokov 's "Lolita"</h1>

<ul> <li><b>Date: </b><A HREF="/FileRoom/documents/D1951_1975.html">1951 -
1975</A> <p> <li><b>Location: </b><A
HREF="/FileRoom/documents/Leurope.html">Europe</A> <b>& </b><A
HREF="/FileRoom/documents/Lsouthamerica.html">South America </A> <b>&
</b><A HREF="/FileRoom/documents/Laustralia.html">Australasia</A><p>
<li><b>Subject: </b><A HREF="/FileRoom/documents/Gsexuality.html">
Sexuality </A> <b>& </b><A
HREF="/FileRoom/documents/Greligious.html">Religious</A><p> <li><b>Medium:
</b><A HREF="/FileRoom/documents/Mliterature.html">Literature</A> </ul>
<hr> <ul> <li><b>Artist/Author/Producer: </b>Nabokov, Vladimir
(1899-1977)<p> <li><b>Confronting Bodies: </b>U.S. Customs Office, French
State, Argentinean State, New Zealand State.<p> <li><b>Dates of action:
</b>1955+<p> <li><b>Location: </b>U.S., France, Argentina, New Zealand
</ul><p>


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<dl>
<dt> <b>Description of the Art Work </b> <p>
<dd>"Lolita", 1955: Novel with anti-hero, Humbert Humbert, who is possessed
by an overpowering desire for very young girls. One of Nabokov
allegories: love, examined in the light of its seeming opposite, lechery.

<p>
<dt> <b>Description of incident</b> <p>
<dd>1955 : Nabokov completed "Lolita" in 1954, but could not find a
publisher. Olympia press issued it in Paris and it was held Admissible by
the U.S. Customs, but not by the British.

<p>
<dt> <b>Results of incident</b> <p>
<dd>1956 France-Paris: Banned as obscene. U.S. Customs pronounced the book
unobjectionable. "Lolita" thus could not be legally exported from France,
but smuggled copies could be legally imported into the U.S.<p>
1959 Argentina-Buenos Aires: The court said that "Lolita" was not banned
because of crude passages, but because of the whole work reflected moral
disintegration and reviled humanity. <p>
1960 New Zealand: Banned by the Supreme Court.<p>

1955 United States: Graham Greene's praise of "Lolita" set off a long
controversy.<p>
1956 United States: Publishers thought the book unworthy of publication,
but it came abridged in a magazine, Anchor Review 2.<p>
1958 U.S.A.: The book was finally published by Putnam.<p>
1959 England: Freely published.<p>
1959 France: Ban lifted.<p>
1962 Argentina-Buenos Aires: the ban was again upheld.

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</dl>


<pre> </pre> <i>Source: Banned Books 387 B.C. to 1978 A.D., by Anne Lyon
Haight, and Chandler B.

Grannis, R.R. Bowker Co, 1978.</i>

<hr> <h3><A HREF="/FileRoom/documents/CategoryHomePage.html">Go to main
categories</A> <hr> <h6> Record no 267</h6>

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