Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Impossible to rate as it's an awful subject, but very well written. The skill of the book (and what makes it most disturbing for me), is that it isn't a clear-cut story of innocent child and predatory adult (which is not to excuse Humbert's actions), and it's only told from one - very biased - point of view.

Since writing this review, I've discovered that Nabokov was a . If I (re)read him, I'll have to bear that in mind.

This book raises many intriguing and troubling questions, balanced out by beautiful writing. Some see it as a love story, but I see no love - not even self love. The subject is appalling, but it’s not very explicit, which has the disturbing effect of making the reader complicit in Humbert’s fantasies and later, his actions.

* Some minor spoilers below (but the story is well-known) *

Truth and Lies

It is written as the supposedly honest confession of a paedophile, with overtones of necrophilia (initially he intends to drug her to rape her) and incest (when he is Lolita’s (step)father and even fantasises about her bearing him a child to replace her in his sexual affections). It mixes psychological self-analysis, wry humour, literary flourishes and endless excuses and justifications, though at other times he relishes his debauchery. Mostly he writes in a detached way, especially early on, occasionally slipping into the third person for himself.

Although it’s meant to be “true�, I couldn’t see why Lolita stuck with Humbert once the initial excitement had worn off, even allowing for the fact she enjoyed manipulating him for gifts and money (her loose morals, he said). But she'd been groomed very effectively, and there was no one obvious for her to turn to.

Humbert offers no explanation as to why she was so sexually precocious (it seems to predate her fling at summer camp). Perhaps he's imagining it, as justification for what he must, deep down, know is wrong, or maybe he's not the first to have abused her. The bit where the headmistress of Beardsley School tells Humbert that Lolita is “morbidly uninterested in sexual matters� was bizarrely implausible. Maybe even Humbert can't lie plausibly all of the time.

Shameless

Humbert gives plenty reasons why he should not feel guilty (“nymphets� are demoniac; it’s a natural urge; other societies allow such relationships; if she was drugged she’d never know; it’s not as bad as murder; he’s generous and indulgent), but Nabokov muddies it further by the fact that Lolita is allegedly not a virgin and actually takes the initiative in their first sexual encounter, and at least one subsequent one, even though she doesn’t appear to enjoy it. That's enough justification for Humbert (hopefully not Nabokov), and leaves the reader unsettled and unconvinced. Lolita is a child, unable to give consent, no matter the circumstances and history.

Falling Apart

The second half of the book is more muddled and, at times manic, reflecting Humbert’s own decline. After all the dreadful things he does, his final downfall is a literal but relatively trivial crossing of the line: a gloriously ironic way to end such a troubling novel.

Modern Mores - see also

Would such a book be published today, now society is hyper-alert for paedophiles, and #MeToo is taking off?

� Marguerite Duras published The Lover (see my review HERE), but that was autobiographical in back in 1984.

Maybe it's marginally less shocking when the sexes are reversed?

� In 2004, Zoe Heller wrote Notes on a Scandal / What Was She Thinking? (see my review HERE), about a married but oddly naïve teacher and a teenage boy pupil.

� In 2012, John Banville finished his Alex Cleave trilogy with Ancient Light (see my review HERE), in which an aging man fondly remembers a teenage fling with a friend's mother.

Of those three, Banville's is my favourite.

What does the writing of such a book say about Nabokov and, more troublingly, what does the reading of it say about me?

Another Nabokov

Nabokov's short story, Symbols and Signs, features parents struggling to cope with an adult child's mental health issues. See my review HERE. The shock comes from love, not abuse.