SOURCE: Podhoretz, Norman. “Lolita, My Mother-in-Law, the Marquis de Sade, and Larry Flynt.” Commentary 103, no. 4 (April 1997): 23-35.

In the following essay, Podhoretz discusses the pros and cons of censoring pornographic literature, using Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita, the works of the Marquis de Sade, and Larry Flynt's Hustler magazine as points of departure.

Not long ago, the Library of America put out a beautiful new three-volume edition of the novels and memoirs of Vladimir Nabokov,¹ and I decided to seize upon it as a convenient occasion for reacquainting myself with his work. Which explains why I happened to be reading Lolita on the very day a story by Nina Bernstein appeared on the front page of the New York Times that cast a horrifying new light on Nabokov's masterpiece. It also brought memories to the surface that had long been buried, and simultaneously forced me into rethinking a number...