Never Won a Major Prize
Lolita
by Vladimir Nabokov
Summary
Literature professor Humbert Humbert confesses his obsession with twelve year old Dolores Haze in prose of dazzling and unsettling beauty. Nabokov dares the reader to fall for an eloquent monster while the real story of a stolen childhood surfaces between the lines. The novel remains one of the most acclaimed and most argued over works of the twentieth century.
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Historical Context & Significance
American publishers rejected the manuscript and no prize committee touched it after its 1955 Paris publication. Nabokov never won the National Book Award despite multiple nominations.