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Mon, 08 Nov 2004
My copy of Vladimir's Nabokov's infamous novel, Lolita, quotes a Vanity Fair review claiming it is "[T]he only convincing love story of our century." Vanity Fair is wrong. While Lolita is convincing, it is not a love story; rather Nabokov writes about lust, obsession, and immorality.
Humbert Humbert, the lecherous protagonist, is a curious character. He is a well read scholar, handsome, and socially adept. The novel's first person narration, coupled with Nabakov's careful diction and sophisticated rhetoric, strongly support such positive impressions. Humbert's private obsession with nymphets, as he dubs his young would-be conquests, stands in stark contrasts to his civilized exterior. Although Humbert actions are unequivocally deplorable, he is often hard to hate. Anyone can make demonize a rapist, but only a truly skilled novelist can humanize one.
The other characters are obscured by Humbert's sociopathy. The lines surrounding Dolores Haze (Lolita) are so full of irrational flattery, it is impossible to separate the girl from Humbert's id. Likewise, the protagonist's feelings for the adult women in his life, a peculiar mix of apathy, jealousy and disdain, overwhelm any objective description. As the reader is unable to distinguish the supporting characters from the protagonist's state of mind, the resulting characterizations are interesting both as individuals and as a reflection of Humbert.
Although Nabokov was a Russian emigree, Lolita is American novel. The author drops his characters into classic americana settings: the highways to California, sleepy New England towns, suffocating suburbia, southwestern thunderstorms and dilapidated roadside motels. Nabokov entered the United States in 1940, and lived here for fifteen years prior to publishing Lolita. His views of the country are reminiscent of Hemmingway's vision of Paris. Each examined his adopted home with a foreigner's detachment, and understood it perhaps more fully than any native.