Secret Lolita

These anonymous but highly literate Confessions describe in prurient detail the sexual activities and perversions in Russia and Italy before WW1. We know for certain that Nabokov read Victor X's Confessions before writing Lolita, his best and most famous book written in English. Victor X is Nabokov's hero Humbert Humbert in action, but without any sexual inhibitions. Much of the ambience of Lolita and some actual incidents come almost directly from Victor X. This book also describes aspects of Russian social and cultural life almost unreported anywhere else. For this book, Professor Donald Rayfield has written an extensive, scholarly and fascinating commentary