{"id":85044,"date":"2015-04-22T15:00:39","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T19:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=85044"},"modified":"2015-04-22T14:47:02","modified_gmt":"2015-04-22T18:47:02","slug":"isnt-it-nice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/22\/isnt-it-nice\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cIsn\u2019t It Nice?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qVtwVcYbz7k?rel=0\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In the age of the List, comparing editions of <em>Lolita<\/em> has become a national pastime. (That may be overstating the case. But there are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.openculture.com\/2011\/05\/vladimir_nabokov_marvels_over_different_lolita_book_covers.html\" target=\"_blank\">at least two<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/greaterthanorequalto.net\/blog\/2009\/08\/lolita-covers\/\" target=\"_blank\">such lists<\/a> in existence.)<\/p>\n<p>But I hasten to say: this is not mere hackery! Or, if it is, it is a sort of hackery endorsed by one Vladimir Nabokov himself! In this clip (part of <a href=\"http:\/\/latimesblogs.latimes.com\/jacketcopy\/2008\/12\/have-you-seen-n.html\" target=\"_blank\">a longer film<\/a>, well worth watching when you have the time) the author displays all the foreign editions of <em>Lolita <\/em>with the unself-conscious pride of a greedy baby.<\/p>\n<p>(Incidentally, I&#8217;m pretty sure the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dezimmer.net\/Covering%20Lolita\/slides\/1959%20TUR%20Aydin%20Yayinevi,%20Istanbul.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">elderly Turkish Lolita<\/a> he references is this specimen, rivaled in unsexiness only by the somber, <a href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_fhVpDW9sV30\/SmiNl3mLhVI\/AAAAAAAAJok\/gtCwbo-lips\/s400\/stef6959.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">vaguely Keene-ish child<\/a> who graces the 1963 French edition.)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review<em>, and the <\/em>Daily<em>\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the age of the List, comparing editions of Lolita has become a national pastime. (That may be overstating the case. But there are at least two such lists in existence.) But I hasten to say: this is not mere hackery! Or, if it is, it is a sort of hackery endorsed by one Vladimir [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[9158,9899,216,17872,17873,966,7214,967],"class_list":["post-85044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-birthdays","tag-covers","tag-design","tag-greed","tag-hackery","tag-lolita","tag-videos","tag-vladimir-nabokov"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Watch: Nabokov Shows Off His Many Editions of \u201cLolita\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a clip from an old show (\u201cUSA: The Novel\u201d), Nabokov gives viewers a tour of his Lolita collection.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/22\/isnt-it-nice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cIsn\u2019t It Nice?\u201d by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April 22, 2015 \u2013 In the age of the List, comparing editions of Lolita has become a national pastime. 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