Lolita

First published in 1955, this novel is the confession of Humbert Humbert, a European emigre who becomes sexually obsessed with Dolores Haze, a twelve-year-old American girl he calls Lolita. After lodging in her mother's house in a New England town, he takes the child on a long automobile tour of motels and highways, trying to keep her with him while evading curiosity and a rival pursuer. The narration is ornate, self-justifying, and addressed to a court. Postwar American roadside culture is the setting. The book is a study of predation and self-deception in the first person, not a romance in the ordinary sense.

Bound in buckram with inset blocked pink leather cover ("Loleeta") and spine title labels.