Lolita by Vladimr Nabokov (1955)

One of the most famous and controversial novels of the twentieth-century, Lolita by the Russian-born American writer Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) is presented as prison confession of the protagonist Humbert Humbert, who recounts his pedophilic attraction for twelve-year old Lolita and their subsequent “affair.” First published in Paris by Maurice Girodias’ Olympia Press in 1955, the book was banned by the French government a year later, on December 10, 1956. The first U.S. edition of the novel, published by Putnam in August 1958, ranked it among the bestselling novels of all time, with 100,000 copies sold in the first three weeks, and more than 50 million copies sold worldwide since then. Despite its lasting impact on popular culture (the word “Lolita” has turned into a common noun, listed in most dictionaries to designate “a precociously seductive girl” [Merriam-Webster]), the novel has become more controversial than ever in recent years because of its subject matter.