Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov

About 3 pages (782 words)

Lolita Summary

Lolita

Penned by Russian émigré turned American novelist Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (1899-1977), Lolita ranks high among twentieth-century fictional works that have achieved literary acclaim as a result of controversy and censorship. Indeed, the initial rejection of this book by international and American readers produced so much focus on Lolita that rather than being abandoned as obscene pornography, its ideas and theme have survived and continue to influence American popular culture through the millennium.

Briefly, the novel details the tragic yet amusing tale of Humbert Humbert, a dubious European émigré who harbors an obsession for young girls. Upon receiving an inheritance from an uncle, he moves to a small New England town to accept an academic position. Seeking lodging, Humbert rents a room from Charlotte Haze after he encounters her twelve-year-old daughter, Dolores. In time, consumed by his secret passion to be near Dolores, or Lolita as he affectionately calls her, Humbert marries Charlotte. Shortly thereafter, Charlotte dies in a car accident after reading Humbert's diary entries revealing his obsession for Lolita. Relieved at this turn of events, Humbert takes Lolita on an extended journey across America during which time she seduces him and they become lovers. Eventually, Lolita becomes weary of Humbert's possessiveness and leaves him for another, whom Humbert later seeks out and murders.

As noted in his essay, "On a Book Entitled Lolita, " Nabokov was aware that his treatment of incest in Lolita was one of three themes considered taboo by American publishers. In order to maintain his tenured status as a professor at Cornell University, he initially elected to publish the novel anonymously. After being rejected by American publishers Simon & Schuster, The Viking Press, New Directions, and others because of its alleged pornographic content, Lolita was finally published under Nabokov's own name in late 1955 by the Olympia Press in Paris. The initial printing of 5,000 copies sold immediately and brought Nabokov recognition in Europe. A December 1955 article written by Graham Greene in England's Sunday Times soon focused international attention on the novel. Greene's praise of the novel as "one of the three best works of 1955" aroused members of the British press to obtain copies and to proclaim alarm about the safety of young girls. Subsequently, a heated debate among British literati concerning the novel's immorality in May 1956 captured the interest of G. P. Putnam & Sons of New York, who later published the first American edition in August 1958.

Once Lolita became available in American bookstores, its commercial success soared due to book reviews read by a more literate public as well as censorship practiced by a moral, conservative public. Within book reviews the repetitive use of words such as obscene, immoral, pornography, scandal, and incest, among others, likely nurtured the public's focus on the perceived lurid or immoral theme of the novel. Moreover, in September 1958, the Public Library of Cincinnati, Ohio, banned Lolita from its bookshelves, and other libraries and school systems nationwide followed suit. In a much-publicized event, the citizens of Lolita, Texas, (named after resident Lolita Reese in 1910), debated whether to change the town's name to avoid the scandal associated with the book. Collectively, these and other incidents focused attention on Lolita such that it maintained the number one position on the New York Times Bestseller List for the last eleven weeks of 1958 and well into 1959. Additionally, in 1962, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film version of the novel (screenplay by Nabokov) produced a renewed interest in Lolita and subsequently increased its profits from book and movie ticket sales. A few decades later, in 1996, an updated film version was made that attracted more publicity than the 1962 version due to its purported sexual content.

The fact that Lolita has had uninterrupted publication since 1958 provides ample evidence of its longevity and popularity. Its theme, language, and commercial value continue to impact American and international culture. For example, in psychoanalysis such phrases as the "Lolita Syndrome" and "Lolita Complex" have been used to describe a middle-aged male's secret lust for prepubescent females or the unhealthy desire for young females. In Sweden, an opera based on the novel was produced and Lund University's electronic library was named Lolita. During the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, an article in the Washington Post referred to a young female gymnast as "Lolita of the balance beam." Moreover, an Olympia Press first edition copy of Lolita, priced high at $12.50 in 1956, is valued in excess of $4,000 in 1998.