The Big Boring Book Blog

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Controversy

Lolita was rejected by various American publishers and was finally published in France in 1955 by Olympia Press. Various countries deemed Lolita obscene and banned it, but the novel became a best seller in the United States, despite its controversial subject. The discussions of forbidden desire and sexuality in Lolita were revolutionary for its time. Not many books had explicitly explored the darker elements of sex and desire. With Lolita, Nabokov is able to subvert the traditional views of sexuality and psychology while pretending to pay respect to them.

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Summary

In the novel’s foreword, the fictional character John Ray, Jr., Ph.D. receives a manuscript entitled Lolita, or the Confession of a White Widowed Male. The author of the manuscript is known as Humbert Humbert, who died in jail while waiting for his trial. In the manuscript, Humbert recalls growing up on the Riviera where he met his first love, Annabel Leigh who died 4 months later. Humbert becomes obsessed with young girls who are sexually aware and desirable. When he comes to the United States, he stays with a widow named Charlotte Haze and becomes infatuated with her 12 year old daughter, Dolores. Charlotte falls in love with Humbert and he marries her to remain close to Lolita. Through his diaries, Charlotte finds out that Humbert loves her daughter and storms out of the house, only to be hit by a car and killed. After Humbert picks Lolita up from her summer camp, the two depart on their year-long journey across the country. Humbert becomes more obsessed while Lolita learns to manipulate him. Humbert suspects that they are being followed and accuses Lolita of conspiring with the person. After Lolita becomes ill, Humbert arrives at the hospital only to find that her “uncle” has picked her up. Humbert searches for Lolita for the next 2 years and later recieves a note from Lolita, now married and pregnant, asking for money. Humbert finds Lolita but discovers that her husband isn't the one who kidnapped her. Lolita admits that her kidnapper was Clare Quilty who kicked her out after refusing to participate in a child pornography orgy. Humbert hunts Clare Quilty down and kills him. He is arrested and continues to write his memoir. Lolita dies in childbirth and he dies of heart failure.