Introduction to Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita/Lolita's reception

As you have learn from the previous section, publication of Lolita followed protracted controversy in the British, French and American media. It was endlessly discussed whether the book was pornographic or not and whether is should be banned or not. The list of countries which imposed bans on Lolita includes:

• the UK, where the ban lasted until 1959
• France
• Argentina
• New Zeland
• South Africa
• Canada

However, when finnally published in English-speaking countries, the book achieved a great success. It took only three weeks for Lolita to be sold in over 100 000 copies in the USA and only over a month to reach the top of New York Times list of bestsellers. Since the book spent the whole Autumn of 1958 on the lists of bestselling books, there was not a day without mentioning or discussing Lolita in the press. Nonetheless, the fate of Lolita’s was uncertain as the voices of oppositions were still heard, bans were imposed, removed, and again imposed; various American libraries kept refusing to include the book in their catalogues.

Lolita received mixed reception from the very beginning since among Lolita’s first nineteen reviewers eleven praised the book, five condemned it, and three remained neutral. Nowadays the Lolita state of affairs remains the same as she is either loved or hated.