Frequently appearing on best-novels lists, I’ve always found this one to be intimidating, mostly because of the subject matter, but also because of its lofty reputation as elite literature. However, after a thorough introduction and assurance that the novel was worth reading by the excellent The Book Club podcast, I decided it was time. I found a recent (2025) printing and it came on vacation with me.
The story of Lolita is considered well known, but in fact it is much more complex than the typical understanding. Yes, it has the extremely unsettling main character of Humbert Humbert, unreliable narrator, inveterate pervert, and confirmed madman. And yes, he commits horrible, criminal acts on Lolita. And yes, he is a murderer. Even with all that, Lolita is a strange and strangely engaging novel. Despite the repugnant subject, the writing pulls you along. Like a scene of horror, you want to look away but also want to see what happens.
Humbert tries to deflect his depravity by painting Lolita as an accomplice or at least a willing victim, due to her previous sexual experience (for which we only have Humbert’s unreliable word); he coldly points out to her (and us) that her options are very limited, and then seduces her with the materials desirable to any early 1950s teenager. Nabakov paints a terrifically accurate portrait of that era, making the perversity of Humbert even more stark against the backdrop of an American golden age.
Ultimately, I found the story itself didn’t work. Humbert’s cagey and self-serving narration is more than unreliable – it is unbelievable. Some or perhaps all of the story feels made up, the story of an insane person who has been living in a fantasy world for a long time. Hebephilia is not his only pathology; narcissism is clearly there. Humbert is writing out this story knowing that it will be shared with us, trying to impress with his candour and cunning, his brazen success at getting what he wants and getting away with it. But a man travelling with a child concubine could not have gone unnoticed for so far and so long, especially as Humbert and Lolita were (by his own telling) not exactly discrete. And how did he afford it? Even on the dusty side roads of America, a whole year of travelling, plus gifts and entertainments, would be expensive, would have required ready access to cash in a variety of locations, and the occasional need for identification, especially when he eventually enrols Lolita in school and later when she ends up in hospital. Humbert is not wealthy and hardly works (he’s a translator for academics), so his capacity to finance their somewhat lavish and debauched lifestyle doesn’t make sense.
Distaste and disbelief aside, this was a compelling read. The writing is so good, the reader just wants to see what happens. How could this continue? What more could he do? How low will he go? How will it end? Could it possibly end happily? Or at least with justice? Unfortunately not, but one can at least hope.
Fate: not sure – likely little book library when I’m done thinking about it
1 – a book with a murder
9 – been made into a film
12 – a book I should read
13 – set somewhere I’ve never been
14 – a name
20 – one word
25 – new author to me
35 – banned
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