"Keys to 'Lolita'" (1968) is the first detailed study of Vladimir Nabokov's most famous novel. Its author, Slavicist and literary critic Karl Proffer, thoroughly examines numerous allusions, literary references, and textual puzzles on which "Lolita" is built, analyzes the stylistic features of Nabokov's "poetic prose," and explores the narrative labyrinths of the novel. Proffer writes not from an academic distance but in a light and witty way — he merely offers his observations and notes so that the reader can see "Lolita" through his eyes. And yet it was this work that sparked in-depth studies of Nabokov's works worldwide. Karl Proffer (1938–1984) and his wife Ellendea played an important role in the fate of Russian dissident writers and their works — from 1969 the couple traveled extensively to Moscow and Leningrad, where they met Joseph Brodsky, Lev Kopelev, Lev Losev, and other uncensored writers. In 1971, in America, the Proffers founded the Ardis publishing house, which published books banned in the Soviet Union. Only in 1987, after Karl's death, was his book of essays and memoirs "Uncensored" published, and in 2017, thanks to Ellendea, it was supplemented and translated into Russian.