Summary:
An in-depth summary of Vladamir Nabakov's "Lolita."
Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita is written as a confession by Humbert Humbert, the book's narrator. He is incarcerated for the murder of a man named Clare Quilty. Humbert was married once before this happened, to a woman named Valeria, who divorced him the day before they emigrated to America from France to be with another man. When he gets to America, Humbert finds that the house that he was supposed to be staying at has burned down, so he goes to check out Charlotte Haze's house in Ramsdale, New Hampshire. Humbert is going to be working as a translator at Beardsley College. Charlotte is immediately attracted to Humbert and she tries very hard to get him to rent the place. It is not until she shows him to the garden where her daughter, Dolores, was sitting by the pool, that he decides he definitely wants to live there. Humbert has always been attracted to nymphets, so he is excited at the chance to stay at the house with her daughter who he calls Lolita. He doesn't notice that Charlotte is attracted to him, or he chooses not to notice. He also keeps a journal about all of his private thoughts about Lolita. Humbert mentions to Charlotte that he thinks that she is being too liberal with Lolita, and that she shouldn't be spending so much time with boys, so Charlotte sends her away to Camp Q. While Lolita is at camp, Charlotte asks Humbert to marry her, and at first, he is repulsed by the idea, but then he realizes by marrying her, he can get closer to Lo. Charlotte then tells Humbert that she plans on sending Lolita away to boarding school and then off to college, so they will be all to themselves, but that is not what Humbert wants, because he wants to be with Lolita, so he thinks about killing Charlotte. One day, Charlotte finds Humbert's diary that he has been keeping about Lolita, and he tries to lie and say it is part of a novel he has been writing, but she does not believe him. Right after, she goes to the mailbox to mail off three letters, and she gets hit by a car and is killed on her way there. Humbert ruminates for a day and then goes to pick up Lolita from camp. He tells her that her mom is sick, and they travel for a while (he tells her they are on their way to visit her mom in Lepingville). When they stop at a hotel, they have to share rooms because the hotel is booked up by a police convention. Lolita and Humbert have flirted and kissed a little throughout their travels in the car, and this continues in the hotel.
He decides to give her a mild sedative so that he can do whatever he wants to her, but once he does it, he only ends up hugging and examining her body, which he could have done without the drugs. The next morning they leave again, and on their way to Lepingville, Humbert tells Lolita that her mother is dead. She is saddened by the news, and when they stop in the hotel that night, they sleep in separate rooms, but in the middle of the night, Lolita gets up and joins Humbert in his bed. They go back to the house in Ramsdale, and Humbert gets jealous when Lo spends time with anyone other than him. He tells her that she isn't allowed to date, and that she is spending too much time with her best friend, Mona, and that she shouldn't spend so much time with her. She then asks him if she can be in the school play, and he tells her no, that she has to earn that right. Humbert finally tells Lolita she can be in the play, under the suggestion of Miss Pratt, the Headmistress of Lolita's school. Lolita's piano teacher calls and asks if she's going to be at the next rehearsal, because she has missed the last two, and Humbert gets very upset with her. They start fighting, and a neighbor hears them. Lolita leaves on her bike, but Humbert catches up to her after explaining to the neighbor that nothing is wrong. She tells him that she does want to go travel around the country with him, and that she is tired of school (a proposal that he had made earlier). While they are traveling, Humbert notices a car following them, and one time, at a gas station, he sees Lo talking to the man in the car. Lolita denies ever talking to the man. She gets sick and has to go to the hospital, where Humbert visits her and brings her gifts. When he goes to check Lolita out of the hospital, the workers tell him that she has already been checked out be her "uncle," who later turns out to be Clare Quilty. Humbert tries to beat up the doctors for letting such a thing happen, but apologizes and says he is drunk once they threaten to call the police. While with Clare Quilty, Lolita runs away from him and Humbert. Four years later, she is married and pregnant and she mails Humbert a letter asking for money so that her and her husband can afford to go to Alaska. Humbert, who is now with a woman his age named Rita, goes to her house and tells Lolita that he wants her to go away with him, but she declines, and he gives her $4,000. Lolita tells Humbert everything that happened about how Clare Quilty took her from the hospital, and it was him that followed them, so Humbert went to his house and killed him. Humbert died in jail of coronary thrombosis, and Lolita died in childbirth.
This is the complete article, containing 969 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).
