On Wednesday, March 29, 2000, from 8:30 a.m. until about 8:30 p.m., students and faculty will read aloud the entire text of Vladimir Nabokov’s controversial novel, Lolita, in the lobby of the Hogan Student Center at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. The reading, dubbed "Lolita Out Loud," is coordinated by Susan Elizabeth Sweeney, Associate Professor of English at Holy Cross, and sponsored by Sigma Tau Delta (the undergraduate English honorary society), the Literary Society, and the Department of English. It is free and open to the public.

At the conclusion of "Lolita Out Loud," the novel’s final chapters will be read aloud by scholars who specialize in Nabokov’s works: Joel J. Brattin (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), Dale Peterson (Amherst College), Maxim Shrayer (Boston College), and Susan Elizabeth Sweeney (Holy Cross). Nabokov himself will read the next to last chapter—by means of sound reproduction technology, however, rather than a visit from the grave.

Several special events accompany the reading. Two films based upon Nabokov’s novel—Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita (1962) and Adrian Lyne’s Lolita (1997)—will be shown to students. Dinand Library’s Main Reading Room is hosting an exhibit of rare books, first editions, and memorabilia relating to Lolita. The campus bookstore is displaying Nabokov’s books in print as well as recent scholarly studies of the author. Finally, there will be an open discussion of rape, abuse, incest, and Lolita the day after the reading.