Lolita
1955
Novel
Humbert Humbert, an erudite European professor with a fixation on "nymphets," narrates the story of his predatory obsession with twelve-year-old Dolores Haze. Written as a confessional addressed to the jury, the novel pairs lyrical, dazzling prose with one of literature's most monstrous narrators — daring the reader to find Humbert charming even as the reality of what he's doing breaks through. Banned and scandalized on first publication, it is now widely considered Nabokov's masterpiece.