260
LOLITA LIGHT OF
MY LIFE FIRE
OF MY LOINS.
MY SIN MY SOUL
LOLITA (1955), VLADIMIR NABOKOV
L
iterary history is punctuated
with books that were either
banned or censored because
they were thought to corrupt public
morals or cause political or religious
offense. In the first half of the 20th
century, literary experimention
pushed the boundaries of taste and
shocked a conservative audience.
In response to this, censors trawled
through works such as Irish writer
James Joyce’s Ulysses to identify
obscenities, and removed sexual
references from English author D. H.
Law rence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
But after the unexpurgated Lady
Chatterley was tried on grounds
of obscenity in 1960 and acquitted,
restrictions on the publication of
pornographic literature in the UK
were effectively abandoned. Across
the world, book censorship eased,
but it never disappeared entirely.Accepting the unacceptable
Few now would be offended by
books that were censored in the
past, and yet Vladimir Nabokov’s
controversial novel Lolita retains its
power to disturb as well as enchant.
Banned after its 1955 publication in
France and republished in London
in 1959, the novel is founded on
narrator Humbert Humbert’sobsession with a certain type of
underage seductress: the “nymphet,”
a slender, silky-skinned pubescent
girl, between 9 and 14 years old.
The title of the novel has become
part of the English language as a
reference to a young temptress.
Reading Lolita creates a
state of mental confusion since the
reader warms to a narrator who
subverts all normal reactions to
his appalling story. In Humbert’s
claustrophobic fantasy, readers
lose perspective, seduced by an
urbane European professor, with
a well-prepared defense peppered
with apologies, literary allusions,
wordplay, and treacherous wit.The spell of obsession
As an adolescent on the French
Riviera, Humbert fell in love with
the young Annabel—the template
for his obsession. Years later, in
the US, he “broke her spell by
incarnating her in another”: Dolores
Haze, dubbed Lolita, the 12-year-
old daughter of his landlady. The
devastating consequences are
played out after Humbert marries
the mother to gain access to the
girl, the object of his fantasy. A
vague plan to murder his new wife
becomes unnecessary after she isIN CONTEXT
FOCUS
Banned booksBEFORE
1532–64 François Rabelais’
Gargantua and Pantagruel is
condemned for obscenity by
the College of Sorbonne, Paris.1759 Although banned by
government and church
authorities for its satirical
content, Voltaire’s Candide
becomes a best seller.1934 Tropic of Cancer, Henry
Miller’s account of life as a
writer in Paris, is banned in
the US for sexual content.AFTER
1959 Narrated by a junkie,
William Burroughs’s Naked
Lunch is banned in Boston
in 1962; the decision is
overturned in 1966.1988 Salman Rushdie’s The
Satanic Verses is banned
in more than 10 countries
for perceived blasphemy
against Islam.US_260-261_Lolita.indd 260 08/10/2015 13:09