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. But Vladimir Nabokov's wise, ironic, elegant masterpiece owes its stature as one of the twentieth century's novels of record not to the controversy its material aroused but to its author's use of that material to tell a love story almost shocking in its beauty and tenderness.
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. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America, but most of all, it is a meditation on love–love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.
With an Introduction by Martin Amis

In Pale Fire Nabokov offers a cornucopia of deceptive pleasures: a 999-line poem by the reclusive genius John Shade; an adoring foreword and commentary by Shade's self-styled Boswell, Dr. Charles Kinbote; a darkly comic novel of suspense, literary idolatry and one-upmanship, and political intrigue.

The author's observations on the great nineteenth-century Russian writers-Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Gorky, Tolstoy, and Turgenev. "This volume... never once fails to instruct and stimulate. This is a great Russian talking of great Russians" (Anthony Burgess). Edited and with an Introduction by Fredson Bowers; illustrations.

"Dopo trentasei anni rileggo Lolita di Vladimir Nabokov, che ora Adelphi ripresenta... Trentasei anni sono moltissimi per un libro. Ma Lolita ha, come allora, un'abbagliante grandezza. Che respiro. Che forza romanzesca. Che potere verbale. Che scintillante alterigia. Che gioco sovrano. Come accade sempre ai grandi libri, Lolita si è spostato nel mio ricordo. Non mi ero accorto che possedesse una così straordinaria suggestione mitica". (Pietro Citati)
《洛丽塔》意大利语译本。

幾百年の歳月のなか、数多くの解釈にまみれてきたドン・キホーテ。憂い顔の騎士の真の姿を見つけるべく、ナボコフは物語を解体する。永遠の古典をあざやかに読みかえる批評の精髄。要約付。

A fastidiously shaped series of lectures based on a chapter-by-chapter synopsis of the Spanish classic. Rejecting the common interpretation of Don Quixote as a warm satire, Nabokov perceives the work as a catalog of cruelty through which the gaunt knight passes. Edited and with a Preface by Fredson Bowers; photographs.

Here, for the first time, the stories of one of the century's greatest prose stylists are collected in a single, comprehensive volume. Written from the early 1920s - the years of his exile from Russia - to the mid-1950s, when he abandoned the story form and turned to his English-language masterpieces Lolita, Pale Fire, and Ada, these stories reveal the fascinating progress of Nabokov's early development as they remind us that we are in the presence of a magnificent original, a genuine master. Edited by his son and translator, Dmitri Nabokov, The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov is a literary event and a celebration of his art.

Vladimir Nabokov's early novel is the dazzling story of the coarse, strange yet oddly endearing chess-playing genius Luzhin. Discovering his prodigious gift in boyhood and rising to the rank of international Grandmaster, Luzhin develops a lyrical passion for chess that renders the real world a phantom. As he confronts the fiery, swift-swooping Italian Grandmaster, Turati, he brings into play his carefully devised defence. Making masterly play of metaphor and imagery, "The Luzhin Defense" is the book that, of his early works, Nabokov felt 'contains and diffuses the greatest warmth'.

A rich evocation of Nabokov's life and times, even as it offers incisive insights into his major works, including LOLITA, PNIN, DESPAIR, THE GIFT and others.

The letters of the great writer to his wife—gathered here for the first time—chronicle a decades-long love story and document anew the creative energies of an artist who was always at work.
No marriage of a major twentieth-century writer is quite as beguiling as that of Vladimir Nabokov’s to Véra Slonim. She shared his delight in life’s trifles and literature’s treasures, and he rated her as having the best and quickest sense of humor of any woman he had met. From their first encounter in 1923, Vladimir’s letters to Véra form a narrative arc that tells a half-century-long love story, one that is playful, romantic, pithy and memorable. At the same time, the letters tell us much about the man and the writer. We see the infectious fascination with which Vladimir observed everything—animals, people, speech, the landscapes and cityscapes he encountered—and learn of the poems, plays, stories, novels, memoirs, screenplays and translations on which he worked ceaselessly. This delicious volume contains twenty-one photographs, as well as facsimiles of the letters themselves and the puzzles and doodles Vladimir often sent to Véra.

In this collection of interviews, articles, and editorials, Nabakov ranges over his life, art, education and politics amoung other subjects.

Nabokov begins his Strong Opinions 'I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child'. In the interviews collected here - covering everything from his own burgeoning literary celebrity to Kubrick's Lolita to lepidoptery - he is never casual or off-guard. Instead he insisted on receiving questions in advance and always carefully composed his responses. Keen to dismiss those who fail to understand his work and happy to butcher those sacred cows of the literary canon he dislikes, Nabokov is much too entertaining to be infuriating, and these interviews, letters and articles are as engaging, challenging and caustic as anything he ever wrote.

"Nabokov writes prose the only way it should be written, that is, ecstatically." -- John Updike
The Real Life of Sebastian Knight is a perversely magical literary detective story -- subtle, intricate, leading to a tantalizing climax -- about the mysterious life of a famous writer. Many people knew things about Sebastian Knight as a distinguished novelist, but probably fewer than a dozen knew of the two love affairs that so profoundly influenced his career, the second one in such a disastrous way. After Knight's death, his half brother sets out to penetrate the enigma of his life, starting with a few scanty clues in the novelist's private papers. His search proves to be a story as intriguing as any of his subject's own novels, as baffling, and, in the end, as uniquely rewarding.

我是個怪物，但是我愛妳；
我可鄙、殘忍、一無是處，但是我愛妳，我愛妳……
我的蘿莉塔。
「少女學」的代表之作，當代「蘿莉風潮」的開山始祖
從震驚世界的5國禁書，到20世紀最偉大的文學經典
全新中譯本
特別收錄：「《蘿莉塔》橫跨美國公路之旅地圖」
特別取得德國知名納博科夫學者授權，將書中男主角帶著孤女蘿莉塔長達27,000英里、橫跨48州的美國公路漂泊之旅的路線，繪製成地圖，不僅凸顯《蘿莉塔》作為「公路小說」先驅的重要地位，也讓讀者體驗納博科夫筆下一九四○年代的美國風情！
內容簡介
Lolita
【名詞】 指性早熟的年輕女孩。
【出處】 來自弗拉基米爾．納博科夫一九五八年出版之小說《蘿莉塔》裡的同名角色。
－－《牛津英語辭典》
「蘿莉塔，我生命的光芒、我胯下的烈火，我的罪，我的魂。蘿－莉－塔：舌尖從上顎下滑三步，第三步，在牙齒上輕輕點叩。蘿，莉，塔。
清晨時，她是蘿，平凡無奇的小蘿，四呎十吋高，只穿一隻襪子；身穿寬鬆長褲時，她是蘿拉；在學校她是朵莉；正式簽名時她是朵拉芮絲。
然而，在我懷抱裡，她永遠都是蘿莉塔。」
年屆四十的歐裔文學教授韓伯特，在美國小鎮邂逅了寡婦房東的十二歲女兒「蘿莉塔」，深深為少女那既孩子氣、又充滿妖異魅力的矛盾特質所著迷。於是他接近少女寂寞的寡母夏綠蒂、娶她為妻，理所當然成為了少女的繼父。
正當韓伯特為自己瘋狂的幻想與佔有慾感到罪惡，另一方面又處心積慮、自我欺騙地接近少女時，夏綠蒂偶然發現韓伯特的祕密日記，得知了丈夫的意圖，她在激烈爭執中衝出門外，卻意外車禍身亡。
於是，韓伯特帶著孤女蘿莉塔展開橫跨美國的漂泊之旅，而逐漸成長的蘿莉塔一方面在誘惑中採取主動，另一方面卻又暗自設法逃離繼父扭曲的掌控。這宿命中互相綑縛的兩人，便一路開向了萬劫不復的毀滅終點……
在伍迪艾倫的電影《曼哈頓》中，
在瑪莉蓮曼森的單曲〈心形眼鏡〉裡，
在躍動的日本動漫畫遊戲中，在迷幻的時尚伸展台上，
在德黑蘭的女子讀書俱樂部裡，
我們一次又一次，聽見《蘿莉塔》。
這一次，讓我們重新閱讀它。
【《蘿莉塔》出版大事記】
1954 遭美國五大出版社拒絕出版，被迫轉往法國奧林匹亞出版社發行
1955 出版後，格雷安‧葛林讚揚為當年度最好的三本書之一，引起廣泛撻伐
1956 於英國、法國、阿根廷、紐西蘭、南非相繼遭禁
1958 在美國上市三週內，成為繼《飄》之後銷售最快的作品
1962 名導庫柏力克在嚴苛電影審查制度下，將其改拍成經典名片
1979 「蘿莉塔」風格服飾在日本蔚為風尚，
逐漸形成動漫畫界、同人界重要次文化
1998 高踞美國當代圖書館「二十世紀百大英文小說」第四位經典之作
【書封設計理念】
自從決定出版《蘿莉塔》與《蘿拉的原型》這兩本主題息息相關的「納博科夫雙書」之後，我們就一直希望能為它們創造一個富隱喻意涵的全新面貌。從一開始，我們便打定主意跳脫長久以來，各國書封以各式各樣的「小女孩」呈現《蘿莉塔》的慣例。考慮到原作者畢生對於蝴蝶的研究與熱愛，深深影響了他的文學創作。於是，我們將其未完成遺作《蘿拉的原型》定義為大師的「天才之蛹」，《蘿莉塔》則定義為大師筆下「最耀眼的蝴蝶」，決定了書封的主圖呈現，作者名稱則用近似「自然標本標籤」的灰色色塊鋪底，再以白色手寫體呈現。
整體用色上，我們力求「少女」神祕但禁忌的氣息，分別為兩書選了小女孩裙裝上的洋紅，以及蝶翼上一閃而逝的藍紫；封面折口上《蘿莉塔》壓了尼龍網襪一般的曖昧底紋，而《蘿拉的原型》則搭配透鏡般不斷膨脹、收縮的圖紋，表現文字盡頭無窮的詮釋與想像。
不知道乘坐在蝴蝶翅膀上離世的大師，如果看到這兩本書的封面，會不會願意眨眨他一貫狡獪機敏的眼？

窺探納博科夫心目中
長大成人的「蘿莉塔」！
《蘿莉塔》作者死前要求焚毀、寫在138張資料卡上的傳奇遺稿，原稿重現！
納博科夫獨子──狄米崔專文引介，細敘「違抗父命出版遺稿」始末！
內容簡介
「這就是芙蘿拉。她兩隻深藍色的眼睛靠得很近，而她在二十幾歲想起往事時，嘴角總帶著冷酷。有關她的一切都是撲朔迷離，就連她的名字也被一個無比幸運的藝術家做為原型。雖然對藝術、對愛情、對夢與醒之間的差異，她都一無所知，然而如果你對她提出質疑，她可是會像一隻藍色扁頭毒蛇攻擊你。」
「在我的生命中，只有一個女孩既恐怖又溫柔；數百萬的讀者因為看了她情人寫的書而同情她。我叫她「女孩」，而不是女人、老婆或蕩婦－－如果用我的母語法文來寫，就是「fille」這個字：女孩，女兒，少女。」
學識淵博卻其貌不揚的中年醫生菲力普，在一場畢業典禮上偶然遇見了金髮女孩芙蘿拉（Flora），當時芙蘿拉的母親突然猝死倒地，當女孩曲膝去量母親脈博時，無意露出了黑色學士服下白皙的大腿，卻恰好被身旁的菲力普窺見了……
由於年齡上的巨大差距，兩人不久便在因利益結合的婚姻中漸行漸遠，青春正盛的芙蘿拉經常性紅杏出牆，總令菲力普感到屈辱。就在這時，菲力普收到一部名為《我的蘿拉》（My Laura）的小說，發現這部小說中女主角的模特兒居然正是他的妻子，書中盡是作家赤裸裸的渴慕與慾望。
面對這樣的婚姻，菲力普精神上開始出現異常，身為神經科醫生的他竟開始研究起如何「自我消除」的各種自殺方式，從他的腳趾開始，他不但逐漸化解了肉身，也解脫了被束縛的靈魂……
打開深鎖保險箱的天堂藍圖，
窺探「文字幻術師」納博科夫的靈光一閃，
未完成的經典，仍舊經典！
【《蘿拉的原型》的塵封記事】
1975 納博科夫在蝴蝶標本資料卡上，開始起草《蘿拉的原型》
1977 納博科夫病逝，死前交代妻兒將這部未完手稿焚毀，
往後三十年，除家人與一位不知名人士外，無人得以親見此書。
1991 納博科夫遺孀薇拉過世，這份塵封銀行保險箱三十年的書稿
轉交愛子狄米崔成為繼承人
2008 七十三歲的狄米崔宣布將出版《蘿拉的原型》
2009 《蘿拉的原型》英文版隆重出版，
「尊重作者意願vs. 服膺歷史價值」掀起歐美文化界廣大波瀾
【書封設計理念】
自從決定出版《蘿莉塔》與《蘿拉的原型》這兩本主題息息相關的「納博科夫雙書」之後，我們就一直希望能為它們創造一個富隱喻意涵的全新面貌。從一開始，我們便打定主意跳脫長久以來，各國書封以各式各樣的「小女孩」呈現《蘿莉塔》的慣例。考慮到原作者畢生對於蝴蝶的研究與熱愛，深深影響了他的文學創作。於是，我們將其未完成遺作《蘿拉的原型》定義為大師的「天才之蛹」，《蘿莉塔》則定義為大師筆下「最耀眼的蝴蝶」，決定了書封的主圖呈現，作者名稱則用近似「自然標本標籤」的灰色色塊鋪底，再以白色手寫體呈現。
整體用色上，我們力求「少女」神祕但禁忌的氣息，分別為兩書選了小女孩裙裝上的洋紅，以及蝶翼上一閃而逝的藍紫；封面折口上《蘿莉塔》壓了尼龍網襪一般的曖昧底紋，而《蘿拉的原型》則搭配透鏡般不斷膨脹、收縮的圖紋，表現文字盡頭無窮的詮釋與想像。
不知道乘坐在蝴蝶翅膀上離世的大師，如果看到這兩本書的封面，會不會願意眨眨他一貫狡獪機敏的眼？

Like Kafka's The Castle, Invitation to a Beheading embodies a vision of a bizarre and irrational world. In an unnamed dream country, the young man Cincinnatus C. is condemned to death by beheading for "gnostical turpitude." an imaginary crime that defies definition. Cincinnatus spends his last days in an absurd jail, where he is visited by chimerical jailers. an executioner who masquerades as a fellow prisoner, and by his in-laws. who lug their furniture with them into his cell. When Cincinnatus is led out to be executed. he simply wills his executioners out of existence: they disappear, along with the whole world they inhabit.

Written in mischievous and magically flowing prose, this is Nabokov's 'other' great love story; with some of Lolita's perversity and much more playfulness. Romance follows Ada and Van from their first childhood meeting through eight years of rapture, in a book which is regarded by many to be Nabokov's richest and most ambitious.

Published two weeks after his seventieth birthday, Ada, or Ardor is one of Nabokov's greatest masterpieces, the glorious culmination of his career as a novelist. It tells a love story troubled by incest. But more: it is also at once a fairy tale, epic, philosophical treatise on the nature of time, parody of the history of the novel, and erotic catalogue. Ada, or Ardor is no less than the supreme work of an imagination at white heat. This is the first American edition to include the extensive and ingeniously sardonic appendix by the author, written under the anagrammatic pseudonym Vivian Darkbloom.

Awe and exhiliration--along with heartbreak and mordant wit--abound in Lolita, Nabokov's most famous and controversial novel, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America. Most of all, it is a meditation on love--love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.

Penguin classcis Read Red