![]() Nabokov’s answers – on inspiration, on rejecting the idea the novel needed a message and on the controversial subject matter of middle-aged Humbert Humbert’s illicit desire for 12-year-old Dolores Haze – carry a natural spontaneity that disappeared as Nabokov’s celebrity grew.īerton’s questioning style is measured but pointed, prodding Nabokov about why he chose such deviant behaviour for his subject. It was the first televised interview Nabokov gave about Lolita, a surprise because earlier that fall, the Canadian government had seized shipments of the American edition at the border, only overturning that order after the deputy Minister of Justice intervened. ![]() The program, hosted by Pierre Berton with added guest Lionel Trilling, the noted literary critic, is fascinating viewing for several reasons. ![]() Its resounding success was a far cry from the wilderness years when Nabokov despaired Lolita might never be published at all, and then, after years of wrangling with the novel’s original fly-by-night French publisher, Olympia Press, never published as Nabokov envisioned. Lolita, published in the United States three months earlier, was a certified smash hit, at or near the top of the bestseller lists. 26, 1958, Vladimir Nabokov appeared on the CBC program Close-Up to discuss his newest novel. ![]() Vladimir Nabokov in Rome, working on the screenplay of his novel Lolita. ![]()
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