Literature on Lolita

Boyd, Brian. Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.[1]

Dembo, L.S., ed. Nabokov: The Man and his Work. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967. Contains: Appel, Alfred, Jr. “An Interview with Vladimir Nabokov”. 19-44. Appel, Alfred, Jr. “Lolita: The Springboard of Parody”. 106-143. Bryer, Jackson R. and Thomas J. Bergin, Jr. “Vladimir Nabokov’s Critical Reputation in English: A Note and a Checklist”. 225-274.

Field, Andrew. Nabokov: His Life and Art. Lausanne: Editions l’age d’homme, 1979.[2]

Moynahan, Julian. Vladimir Nabokokov. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1971.[3]

Nabokov, Vladimir V. The Enchanter. transl. by Dmitri Nabokov. New York: Putnam, 1986.

Packman, David. Vladimir Nabokov: The Structure of Literary Desire. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1982.[4]

Rampton, David. Vladimir Nabokov: A Critical Study of the Novels. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.[5]

Roth, Phyllis A., ed. Critical Essays on Vladimir Nabokov. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1984. Contains: Butler Diana. “Lolita Lepidoptera”. 59-74.[6] Tamir-Ghez, Nomi. “The Art of Persuasion in Nabokov’s Lolita”. 157-176.[7]

Wood, Michael. The Magician’s Doubts. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.

[1] In a study focusing on art and artists in Nabokov’s English novels, Bader argues that Lolita immortalizes Humbert’s passion for his nymphet in art.

[2] Psychological reading of Lolita.

[3] Lolita joins the tradition of novels about the quest for the American dream.

[4] A poststructuralist reading. Lolita replays the detective genre. The reader and Humbert become sleuths in reflexive linguistic manipulation. Humbert’s desire for Lolita in text doubles reader’s desire for narrative resolution of text.

[5] Humanist reevaluation of Lolita.

[6] Seminal study of butterflies in Lolita.

[7] Extensive analysis of the rhetorical manipulations Humbert uses to sway the reader in his favor.