The Literature Book

261

Literature is often

perceived as a threat

by authorities because

of its ability to convey

ideas that have the

potential to change

minds and challenge

prevailing ideologies.

Some surprising titles

have been banned over

the years by nations,

states, or libraries for

their political content,

sexual explicitness,

and offensiveness

to religion.

See also: Gargantua and Pantagruel 72–73 ■ Madame Bovary 158– 63 ■ Ulysses 214–21 ■ Nineteen Eighty-Four 250–55 ■

The Tin Drum 270–71 ■ Howl and Other Poems 288 ■ American Pyscho 313 ■ The Satanic Verses 336

POSTWAR WRITING

mown down by a car; the bereaved

stepfather then retrieves Dolores

from summer camp and begins

his attempt to live out his dream.

In love with language

In an “erotic novel” that offers

almost nothing salacious, part

two is a continuation of the author’s

real love affair—with language. In

his highly wrought, ornate, and

lyrical prose, Humbert pieces

together his year-long road trip

with Dolores across the continent,

“putting the geography of the

United States into motion.” The

details of his despotic infatuation

(the quarrels, close calls, and

bribes) intermittently surface in

a surreal, cinematic account that

spools across page after page of

wry observation on American

culture. Arriving back on the East

Coast after a year, Humbert enrolls

Dolores at school, and the fabric

of his fantasy begins to fall apart.

Style, structure, and imagery are

not found in pornographic books, as

Nabokov reminds us in a defensive

afterword to a novel that excels on

all three counts. Humbert Humbert

is the ultimate unreliable narrator,

shielded by a fictional foreword

writer who wraps up the loose

ends before the story has even

begun. There are no alternative

accounts, only the posthumous

voice of Humbert, defending the

indefensible to his readers. ■

Vladimir Nabokov Born into an aristocratic family^

in St. Petersburg, in April 1899,

Vladimir Nabokov spent his

childhood in Russia and grew

up trilingual in English, French,

and Russian. After the Russian

Revolution of 1917, the family

was exiled to England in 1919,

where Nabokov studied at Trinity

College, Cambridge. Following

another move to Berlin, Nabokov’s

father, a journalist and politician,

was assassinated at a political

rally. Living in Berlin and in Paris,

Nabokov wrote novels, short

stories, and poems in Russian,

while working as a tennis coach

and tutor. He married Véra

Slonim in 1925; they had

one son, Dmitri. After fleeing

to the US during World War II,

Nabokov wrote Lolita in English.

He taught at Wellesley College

and Cornell University and,

as an authority on butterflies,

held a position at the Museum

of Comparative Zoology at

Harvard. He died in Montreux,

Switzerland, in 1977.

Other key works

1937 The Gift

1962 Pale Fire

Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Harriet Beecher

Stowe (1852)

Nineteen Eighty-Four

George Orwell (1949)

July’s People

Nadine Gordimer (1981)

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley (1932)

Howl

Allen Ginsberg (1956)

American Psycho

Bret Easton Ellis (1991)

The Satanic Verses

Salman Rushdie (1988)

The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown (2003)

Harry Potter series

J. K. Rowling (1997–2007)

POLITICAL

CONTENT OBSCENITY

RELIGIOUS

OFFENSE

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