Lolita cover
Book

Lolita

by Vladimir Nabokov

1777•Polirom•EN
About the book

Humbert Humbert is an academic who feels an intense attraction to young girls he calls nymphets. He moves into a boarding house and targets Dolores Haze, his landlady’s twelve-year-old daughter. To remain near the child, Humbert marries the mother, Charlotte. After Charlotte dies in an accident, Humbert takes Dolores on a long road trip across the United States. He uses his status as her legal guardian to control her, documenting their movements and his own justifications in a dense, linguistic diary that details his predatory behavior.

This book serves readers interested in the mechanics of unreliable narration and intricate wordplay. It attracts those studying how aesthetic prose can be used to mask moral depravity and manipulation. The reader walks away with an understanding of how a narrator constructs a self-serving reality to excuse abuse. It provides a technical look at the conflict between artistic beauty and the reality of a crime, forcing an analysis of whether sophisticated language can justify a narrator's actions.

Insights from Lolita

“You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style.”

Humbert spends every page trying to make himself the hero. It is chilling how easily he uses beautiful words to hide his cruelty.

Dolores is just a kid who wants comic books and candy. He turns her childhood into a prison while calling it a romance.

The road trip across America feels like a fever dream. They stay in endless motels but she has nowhere to run.

“I was looking at her, and I knew as certainly as I know I shall die, that I loved her more than anything I had ever seen or imagined on earth.”

Humbert is obsessed with a girl who does not exist. He ignores the real human sitting right next to him in the car.

Details
Published
1777
Publisher
Polirom
ISBN
9789734619009
Language
EN

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