Nabokov 's "Lolita"

• Date: 1951 - 1975

• Location: Europe & South America & Australasia

• Subject: Sexuality & Religious

• Medium: Literature

• Artist/Author/Producer: Nabokov, Vladimir (1899-1977)

• Confronting Bodies: U.S. Customs Office, French State, Argentinean State, New Zealand State.

• Dates of action: 1955+

• Location: U.S., France, Argentina, New Zealand

Description of the Art Work

"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.

Description of incident

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.

Results of incident

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.

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.

1960 New Zealand: Banned by the Supreme Court.

1955 United States: Graham Greene's praise of "Lolita" set off a long controversy.

1956 United States: Publishers thought the book unworthy of publication, but it came abridged in a magazine, Anchor Review 2.

1958 U.S.A.: The book was finally published by Putnam.

1959 England: Freely published.

1959 France: Ban lifted.

1962 Argentina-Buenos Aires: the ban was again upheld.

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Record no 267