Subject
Reply to Query: censoring Lolita (fwd)
Date
Body
EDITOR's NOTE. Maurice Couturier, the leading French VN authority, is the
editor of the in-progress Nabokov Pleidade edition.
------------------------------------
From: Maurice Couturier <couturie@taloa.unice.fr>
In answer to Susan Mooney, let me point out that Girodias' little book is
available at the Library of Congress. It is a thin little book containing
- a translation of Nabokov's "On a Book Entitled Lolita"
- Girodias' article "L'affaire Lolita" (a historical approach to censorship with
reference, among other things, to Ulysses)
- various letters and legal texts regarding Lolita and other cases
- an interesting article by a lawyer, Daniel Bécourt, on "L'outrages aux moeurs"
- plus various short texts on censorship.
Since I published my book on censorship, Roman et censure ou la mauvaise
foi d'Eros, (Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 1996), I have had a long discussion
with Jean-Jacques Pauvert who worked closely with Girodias in the fifties
and himself was subjected to censorship for publishing de Sade's works. He
is probably one of the most knowledgeable people in France at the moment
on censorship in the fifties. One of his latest books, Nouveau et moins
nouveaux visages de la censure (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1994), contains
very useful information, though it does not specifically deal with
Lolita.Girodias' autobiography, Une journée sur la terre (2 vols: paris:
Editions de la différence, 1990) is of much interest, too.
MAURICE Couturier
Donald Barton Johnson wrote:
> From: Susan Mooney <kboterbloem@sympatico.ca>
>
> I have been researching the censorship of Lolita, and know M.
> Couturier's fine work, B. Boyd and Edward de Grazia
> provide excellent points also on the difficult publication history of
> this novel. However, I am trying to determine in greater detail the
> censorious machinations of politicians and government officials in Gr.
> Britain and France.
> This is, thus, my problem. I have been waiting for almost 3
> months for interlibrary loans to locate and bring me a copy of Girodias's
> _L'affaire Lolita_, and I'm sure it will provide me with some more
> information. But I am hoping to find someone who has done some actual
> archival research into this matter, and it seems that thus far there is
> nothing of that kind.
> I have tried search engines, but the inclusion of "lolita" harvests an
> awfully numerous listing of pornographic listings, so it is of little
> practical use to look for this particular case in this way. I've kept
> up to date with the MLA's silver platter listings -- there of course
> it's quite safe and quick to make the appropriate subject searches.
editor of the in-progress Nabokov Pleidade edition.
------------------------------------
From: Maurice Couturier <couturie@taloa.unice.fr>
In answer to Susan Mooney, let me point out that Girodias' little book is
available at the Library of Congress. It is a thin little book containing
- a translation of Nabokov's "On a Book Entitled Lolita"
- Girodias' article "L'affaire Lolita" (a historical approach to censorship with
reference, among other things, to Ulysses)
- various letters and legal texts regarding Lolita and other cases
- an interesting article by a lawyer, Daniel Bécourt, on "L'outrages aux moeurs"
- plus various short texts on censorship.
Since I published my book on censorship, Roman et censure ou la mauvaise
foi d'Eros, (Seyssel: Champ Vallon, 1996), I have had a long discussion
with Jean-Jacques Pauvert who worked closely with Girodias in the fifties
and himself was subjected to censorship for publishing de Sade's works. He
is probably one of the most knowledgeable people in France at the moment
on censorship in the fifties. One of his latest books, Nouveau et moins
nouveaux visages de la censure (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1994), contains
very useful information, though it does not specifically deal with
Lolita.Girodias' autobiography, Une journée sur la terre (2 vols: paris:
Editions de la différence, 1990) is of much interest, too.
MAURICE Couturier
Donald Barton Johnson wrote:
> From: Susan Mooney <kboterbloem@sympatico.ca>
>
> I have been researching the censorship of Lolita, and know M.
> Couturier's fine work, B. Boyd and Edward de Grazia
> provide excellent points also on the difficult publication history of
> this novel. However, I am trying to determine in greater detail the
> censorious machinations of politicians and government officials in Gr.
> Britain and France.
> This is, thus, my problem. I have been waiting for almost 3
> months for interlibrary loans to locate and bring me a copy of Girodias's
> _L'affaire Lolita_, and I'm sure it will provide me with some more
> information. But I am hoping to find someone who has done some actual
> archival research into this matter, and it seems that thus far there is
> nothing of that kind.
> I have tried search engines, but the inclusion of "lolita" harvests an
> awfully numerous listing of pornographic listings, so it is of little
> practical use to look for this particular case in this way. I've kept
> up to date with the MLA's silver platter listings -- there of course
> it's quite safe and quick to make the appropriate subject searches.