Vladimir Nabakovs shocking masterpiece now in a beautifully designed clothbound editionLolita is comedy subversive yet divine Martin AmisPoet and pervert Humbert Humbert becomes obsessed by twelveyearold Lolita and seeks to possess her first carnally and then artistically out of love to fix once for all the perilous magic of nymphets. Is he in love or insane A tortured soul or a monster Humbert Humberts seduction is one of many dimensions in Nabokovs dizzying masterpiece which is suffused with a savage humour and rich elaborate verbal textures. Filmed by Stanley Kubrick in 1962 starring James Mason and Peter Sellers and again in 1997 by Adrian Lyne starring Jeremy Irons and Melanie Griffith Lolita has lost none of its power to shock and awe.