Lolita

The heyday of Parisian erotica

10 June 2023 9:00 am

In the mid-20th century, titles such as Whip Angels, White Thighs, School for Sin and The Wisdom of the Lash joined Lolita and The Naked Lunch on Olympia Press’s list

Were the Sixties really so liberated?

18 December 2021 9:00 am

Lolita, the Lady Chatterley trial, the pill, Christine Keeler, ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’, love-ins, Oh! Calcutta!, the Oz trial…

Vladimir Nabokov confesses to butterflies in the stomach

9 November 2019 9:00 am

Not every novelist has opinions. Some of the greatest have a touch of the idiot savant, such as Adalbert Stifter,…

Kingsley Amis (Getty Images)

Kingsley Amis on Lolita: It’s not pornographic enough

9 March 2019 9:00 am

From ‘She was a child and I was a child’ by Kingsley Amis, 6 November 1959: The only success of…

Dominique Swain as Lolita and Jeremy Irons as Humbert in Adrian Lyne’s 1997 film (Rex Fea-tures)

Would any publisher dare to print Lolita now?

9 March 2019 9:00 am

The other day Will Self unburdened himself on the state of fiction with crushing hauteur. ‘What’s now regarded as serious…