Book Report(Lolita)

Book report of Lolita

Lolita is a novel written by Vladimir Nabokov, who was a Russian and once studied at Trinity College, Cambridge. The book was first written in English and published in 1955 in Paris, later translated by the author into Russian and published in 1958 in New York.Lolita is listed in the TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. This book is famous for its innovative written style and its controversial subject, a middle aged white widowed male, Humbert Humbert, a pedophile, becomes sexually involved with a twelve-year-old daughter named Dolores Haze. Lolita has become one of the best-known and most controversial examples of 20th century literature. Though this novel has once defined as an erotic novel and it is not being allowed to be published for a long time. But there is no sensual description in this novel. This book is narrated through Mr Humbert’s angle telling the reader from the first moment he met his Lolita till he murdered Quilty(the person who took Dolores Haze to video the pornography).The girl like Dolores Haze is described in this novel as “nymphet”which also indicate the author’s marvelous creativity.

Following is the summary of this novel: this novel described a middle-aged immigrant who moves from France to America, Humbert Humbert. During his childhood he experienced his puppy love with a 14-year-old girl named Annabel. However Annabel died from military fever at her early age. And after dumped by a rich widow, Humbert Humbert began to obsess with those little girls especially those whose age range from 9 to 14 and he also defined those girls as “nymphet”. These tragic experiences are the reason for how Humbert Humbert became a pedophile.

Later in 1947, Humbert, a literary scholar born in 1910 in Paris, moves to Ramsdale, a small New England town, to write something. There he met the light of his life, fire of his loins, Lolita. He rents a room in the house of Charlotte Haze, a widow, mainly for the purpose of being near Charlotte's 12-year-old daughter, Dolores Haze (also known as Dolly, Lolita).

While Lolita is away at summer camp, Charlotte (Lolita’s mother) is oblivious to Humbert's distaste for her and his lust for Lolita until she reads his diary. She makes plans to flee with Lolita and threatens to expose Humbert's perversions. But as she runs across the street in a state of shock, she is struck and killed by a passing motorist. And this part of this novel is the most significant turning point of the whole story. After this unexpected accident Humbert Humbert begin his erotic travel with his daughter Dolores Haze. They drive around the country, moving from state to state and motel to motel. Humbert initially keeps the girl under control by threatening her.

After many years traveling Lolita began to feel dislike to her stepfather. So she use some trick to escape her stepfather’s control. And later Humbert embarks upon a frantic search to find Lolita and her abductor, but eventually he gives up his search.

One day in 1952, Humbert receives a letter from Lolita, now 17, who tells him that she is married, pregnant, and in desperate need of money. Humbert goes to see Lolita, giving her money and hoping to kill the man who abducted her. She reveals the truth: Clare Quilty, an acquaintance of Charlotte's and the writer of the school play, is also a pedophile and amateur pornographer. He fell in love with 12-year-old Lolita, checked Lolita out of the hospital and attempted to make her star in one of his pornographic films; when she refused, he threw her out. And Humbert wanted Lolita to leave her husband and return to him, but she refuses. This is also the most important part of this novel, for it reveals the reader why Lolita will develop such kind of characteristic and lead the whole story to it highlight.

Finally, Humbert Humbert killed Quilty. And according to the novel's fictional "Foreword", Humbert dies of coronary thrombosis upon finishing his manuscript. Lolita dies giving birth to a stillborn girl on Christmas Day. That is the end of this tragicomedy

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According to Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita is not only a novel focused on incest but a book related to love. It was something about using lust to test the true love. As for me, I also have the opinion that this novel is not only a masterpiece in the field of psychology related to pedophilia but a weird love between a 12-year-old girl and his