Two basic questions … confront us in Lolita. First, is Humbert Humbert "really" a lover and an artist or a pervert and a fool, or is he some curious combination of opposites? Second, what is the thematic focus of the novel as a whole? Critics who attempt to answer such questions, of course, risk provoking Nabokov's wrath. In his afterword to the novel, Nabokov sarcastically dismisses "Teachers of Literature [who] are apt to think up such problems as 'What is the author's purpose?' or still worse 'What is the guy trying to say?'" Nabokov insists that his only purpose in writing a novel is "to get rid of" it…. Nevertheless, the risk seems worth taking, since disagreement about Humbert and the novel's theme has resulted in critical confusion. (p. 67)

[The] best generic description of the novel is, perhaps, a parody of comic form. In parodying the form...