Vladimir Nabokov

His last poem, 'Pale Fire', is put into a book, together with a preface, a lengthy commentary and notes by Shade's editor, Charles Kinbote. Known on campus as the 'Great Beaver', Kinbote is haughty, inquisitive, intolerant, but is he also mad, bad - and even dangerous? As his wildly eccentric annotations slide into the personal and the fantastical, Kinbote reveals perhaps more than he should. Nabokov's darkly witty, richly inventive masterwork is...

Poet and pervert, Humbert becomes obsessed by 12 year-old Lolita and seeks to possess her, first carnally and then artistically. This is Nabokov's best known novel which brought him worldwide fame and was later made into a film.