By Vladimir Nabokov Certain books achieve a sort of underground reputation before they are published. Gossip arouses expectations that they are even nastier than the last succ s de scandale. College students returning from visits to Paris demonstrate their newly acquired sophistication by brandishing paperbound copies.
College professors write solemn critical analyses in scholarly publications.
And if their authors are really lucky some act of official censorship publicizes their work to the masses. Mr. Nabokov is particularly lucky because his book was not censored in the United States, but in France of all places. The French ban was eventually removed and now this book written in English in the United States by a White Russian emigr can be bought legally in Paris where it was first published. Its American publication today has been preceded by a fanfare of publicity. Graham Greene says that Lolita is a distinguished novel.