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Nabokov, vLaDimir Lolita (1955)
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov’s 12th novel (his third in
English) is regarded by many as his masterpiece as
well as one of the finest novels of the 20th century.
It is also one of the most notorious. Nabokov (1899–
1977) knew that the novel’s scandalous subject
matter—a middle-aged pedophile’s sexual obses-
sion with a 12-year-old girl—was bound to cause
controversy, and a number of American publishers
shared his apprehension: Fearing prosecution on
charges of obscenity, they turned Lolita down, and
it finally found a home with Paris-based Olympia
Press, which specialized in publishing pornographic
fiction. Olympia published Lolita in 1955; it was
banned the following year, but after being cham-
pioned by a number of authors, the ban was lifted,
and it appeared in America in 1958, becoming a
best seller. Readers who had been attracted by the
controversy were bemused by the lack of salacious
material: Lolita, while erotic, is not pornographic.
Others applauded Nabokov’s dazzling prose style,
pitch-black humor, and satiric evocation of America.
Lolita is now an indelible part of pop culture:
the story has spawned two movies and inspired rock
songs, while the name Lolita is often used (inac-
curately) to describe any sexually precocious young
girl. Some books survive on notoriety alone, but
Lolita’s longevity can be credited to Nabokov’s skills
as a writer: more than 55 years after its first appear-
ance, and having sold more than 50 million copies
worldwide, it continues to delight and disconcert in
equal measure.
P. B. GrantInnocence and experIence in Lolita
Innocence and experience function on different lev-
els in Lolita. The novel is primarily concerned with
sexual innocence, in terms of its attraction for Hum-
bert and, from Lolita’s point of view, the dangers of
being subjected to adult experiences at too young an
age. But these themes also have legal connotations:
Humbert writes Lolita from prison, where he is
awaiting trial for killing Quilty, so the memoir gives
him an opportunity to account for his experiences
and, should he choose to, proclaim his innocence.
Lolita’s innocence is an important part of what
attracts Humbert. The lure lies in the discrepancy
between his age and her youth, “a certain distance
that the inner eye thrills to surmount.” He describes
how Lolita and her fellow nymphets live on an
“enchanted island of time,” and in a sense, his pursuit
of her is an attempt to join her on that island and
recapture his own lost innocence. This is impossible
because through the sexual act, innocence is lost in
the very process of trying to recapture it; moreover,
that innocence belongs to Lolita, who does not live
on an enchanted island but in the real world, and
who becomes a victim of Humbert’s selfish desires.