 Random House Audiobooks Presents Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov read for you by Jeremy Irons Lolita or the confession of a white widowed male Such were the two titles under which the writer of the present note received the strange pages it preambulates Humbert Humbert their author had died in legal captivity of coronary from bosses on November the 16th 1952 a few days before his trial was scheduled to start His lawyer my good friend and relation Clarence Chote-Clarke Square now the district of Columbia bar in Asking me to edit the manuscript based his request on a clause in his client's will Which empowered my eminent cousin to use his discretion in all matters pertaining to the preparation of Lolita for print Mr. Clark's decision may have been influenced by the fact that the editor of his choice had just been awarded the pooling prize Through modest work do the senses make sense Where in certain morbid states and perversions had been discussed My task proved simpler than either of us had anticipated Save for the correction of obvious solicisms in a careful suppression of a few tenacious details that despite HH's own effort Still subsisted in his text as signposts and tombstones Indicative of places or persons that taste would conceal and compassion spare This remarkable memoir is presented intact It's author's bizarre cognomen is his own invention and of course this mask through which two hypnotic eyes seemed to glow Had to remain unlifted in accordance with his wearer's wish While Hayes only rhymes with the heroine's real surname her first name is too closely interwound With the inmost fiber of the book to allow one to alter it Nor as the reader will perceive for himself. Is there any practical necessity to do so? References to HH's crime may be looked up by the inquisitive in the daily papers for September to October 1952 It's cause and purpose would have continued to remain a complete mystery had not this memoir been permitted to come under my reading lamp For the benefit of old-fashioned readers who wish to follow the destinies of the real people beyond their true story A few details may be given as received from Mr. Windmuller of Ramsdale Who desires his identity suppressed so that the long shadow of this sorry and sordid business should not reach the community to which He is proud to belong His daughter Louise is by now a college sophomore Monadol is a student in Paris Rita has recently married the proprietor of a hotel in Florida Mrs. Richard F. Schiller died in child bed giving birth to a stillborn girl on Christmas Day 1952 in Grey Star Sample complete ready to continue