The annotated Lolita / Vladimir Nabokov ; edited, with preface, introduction and notes by Alfred Appel, Jr.

Includes bibliographical references.

Preface / Alfred Appel, Jr. -- Introduction / Alfred Appel, Jr. -- Select bibliography ; Checklist of Nabokov's writing -- Criticism of 'Lolita' -- In place of a note on the text, from 'Pale Fire -- Lolita / Vladimir Nabokov ; Foreword -- Part one -- Part two -- Vladimir Nabokov : on a book entitled 'Lolita' -- Notes.

When it was published in 1955, Lolita immediately became a cause célèbre because of the freedom and sophistication with which it handled the unusual erotic predilections of its protagonist. Awe and exhilaration-along with heartbreak and mordant wit-abound in this account of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. This annotated edition, edited by Alfred Appel Jr., appends some 900 notes, and an exhaustive, good-humored introduction. The notes range from translations, to the anatomical, to the complexly textual. In his preface, Appel admits that "...the reader of Lolita attempts to arrive at some sense of its overall 'meaning,' while at the same time having to struggle...with the difficulties posed by the recondite materials and rich, elaborate verbal textures. The main purpose of this edition is to solve such local problems and to show how they contribute to the total design of the novel." -- from the preface by Alfred Appel, Jr.