Reliable narrator
Sarah Weinman exhumes the real-life inspiration for Nabokov’s Lolita
BY BECKY ROBERTSON

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL LIONSTAR
DEALS
VLADIMIR NABOKOV’S 1955 novel Lolita is, arguably, one of the most contentious and heavily analyzed classics in the international literary canon. But it wasn’t until recently that the real-life incidents behind the disturbingly pedophilic story came to light.