Lolita is a novel by the Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov, written in English; it was published in 1955 in Paris and in 1958 in New York. The author later translated it into Russian. The novel highlighted controversial topics, as the protagonist, Humbert Humbert, is a middle-aged literature professor suffering from pedophilia, who engages in a sexual relationship with 12-year-old Dolores Haze after becoming her stepfather. "Lolita" is Dolores's special nickname. This book is distinguished by its enjoyable writing style. The narration was purely subjective, with Humbert recounting fragmented memories in a rich, sophisticated prose, all while trying to gain the reader's sympathy through his sincerity and sorrows, although shortly before the end of the story he described himself as an obsessive who deprived Dolores of her childhood, then shortly thereafter noted that "the most wretched of family lives was better than the parody of incest he was sharing with Dolores." After its publication, Lolita achieved classic status and became one of the best and most controversial examples in 20th-century literature. The name entered popular culture to describe a girl who matures sexually prematurely. Stanley Kubrick produced the novel as a film in 1962, and Adrian Lyne produced it again cinematically in 1997. It was also performed on stage multiple times, and two operas, two ballets, and a failed musical on Broadway were produced based on it. Lolita was included in Time's list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. It ranked fourth on the Modern Library's 1998 list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century.