The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World

“Weinman’s gripping work of true crime challenges a culture that privileges artistic genius over a child’s life.” — Huffington Post

“The achievement of [Weinman’s] impressive literary sleuthing is to bring to life a girl whose story had been lost.” — New York Times Book Review

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A gripping true-crime investigation of the 1948 abduction of Sally Horner & how it inspired Vladimir Nabokov's classic novel, Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita is one of the most beloved & notorious novels of all time. And yet very few of its readers know that the subject of the novel was inspired by a real-life case: the 1948 abduction of eleven-year-old Sally Horner.

Weaving together suspenseful crime narrative, cultural & social history, & literary investigation, The Real Lolita tells Sally Horner's full story for the very first time. Drawing upon extensive investigations, legal documents, public records, & interviews with remaining relatives, Sarah Weinman uncovers how much Nabokov knew of the Sally Horner case and the efforts he took to disguise that knowledge during the process of writing & publishing Lolita.

Sally Horner's story echoes the stories of countless girls & women who never had the chance to speak for themselves. By diving deeper in the publication history of Lolita & restoring Sally to her rightful place in the lore of the novel’s creation, The Real Lolita casts a new light on the dark inspiration for a modern classic.

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Sarah Weinman is the author of Scoundrel & The Real Lolita & the editor, most recently, of Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit & Obsession. She was a 2020 National Magazine Award finalist for reporting & a Calderwood Journalism Fellow at MacDowell, & her work has appeared in New York magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, & the Washington Post. Weinman writes the crime column for the New York Times Book Review.