Keys to Lolita

“Keys to «Lolita»” (1968) — the first detailed study of the most famous novel by Vladimir Nabokov. Its author, a young American Slavicist Carl Proffer, three years after the book's release, together with his wife Ellen, founded the publishing house “Ardis” and opened the path to readers for Russian writers who were not published in the Soviet Union.
Proffer does not claim to provide a comprehensive academic analysis of “Lolita”; he writes lightly and even jokingly, emphasizing that he only offers his observations regarding the style and techniques of “Lolita”, as well as “keys to some... puzzles” of the novel. Yet it is precisely his work, highly praised by Nabokov himself, that initiated a deep exploration of the famous writer's works.
The translators of “Keys” brilliantly tackled the difficult task: not only to preserve the spirit and style of the analysis but also to find exact correspondences in the author's Russian version of “Lolita” for the many comparisons on which it is based. This unique experience in studying one of the best novels of the 20th century fills one with the excitement of a discoverer and urges one to read it anew immediately.