Lolita, the Most Controversial Book Written by Nabokov
Every time I find myself in a group — whether at university, in the library, at a book launch, in a bookstore, or simply among friends — the fateful question “What is the classic novel you loved the most?” comes up, most people present will claim to have read Nabokov’s Lolita at least once and will cite it as the best.
The secret is that often, most of them are lying.
I am not, of course, saying that this is a classic that no one has read or that it is not among those novels that can be defined as good, beautiful, must-read, and must-read at least once in a lifetime. It is simply not a classic that most of those who claim to have read it have done so.
Background on this Russian classic
Lolita is a novel that has gone through ups and downs in its history over the years since its release. Warmly discouraged, hidden, censored, reevaluated, and finally deemed a great classic of Russian literature albeit with the connotation of being a story with undoubtedly controversial contours.
Disturbing was the fact that the female protagonist (Dolores Haze) is a young twelve-year-old girl for whom a middle-aged man (named Humbert) loses his head. Hopelessly in love with her being a maiden, Humbert is convinced that he sees in her a nymphet capable of making any man lose his head.
The character of Humbert Humbert and the nymphets
A European professor of literature, Humbert has a certain fondness for preadolescent girls that he makes no secret of; after all, the entire novel is told from his point of view. In Lolita, these little girls are referred to by the appellation of nymphets as they are considered by Humbert to be a species of nymphs capable of seducing adult people because they conceal demonic creatures within them.
One of the most annoying aspects of the tale is the ease with which Humbert convinces himself of his actions, justifying them and sometimes even finding them morally acceptable.
In actuality, however, Humbert is a pedophile who abuses Lolita by exerting physical and psychological control over her to bind her to him forever. Meanwhile, in front of others, the man presents himself as a completely respectable, even admirable person.
Lolita: between past and present
In the novel, the young girl takes on a double meaning: on the one hand, there is the real-life description that shows her “tomboy” behavior, her tendency not to keep her hair clean, and more generally her less than provocative behavior; on the other hand there is the way Humbert sees and perceives her as a kind of femme fatal capable of kidnapping his heart. Lolita’s life, however, is studded with violent men who are mean towards her and with whom she has to deal from the very beginning of her life.
If one looks at the Lolita of the films, however, the situation becomes more complicated because — as much as stage requirements had a major impact on the way she was portrayed-the young woman is much more like how Humbert sees her. Hence then came the tendency to call lolita those “precocious” young girls who soon realize the impact their actions have on determined adult men.
The problems with the covers
The fact that this is a controversial novel can also be seen in the covers that have appeared in various international editions over the years and generated discussion. Often this novel — or to be more honest with ourselves, more often than not other books — is presented with a cover in which the protagonist is Lolita, sometimes putting into prominence her being a provocative figure.
When one considers that this is originally a novel about violence suffered by a 12-year-old girl at the hands of a middle-aged man who can be defined as a pedophile, it is not strange that for numerous readers we are confronted with an annoying hypocrisy — to the point of going against even the author’s wishes from the earliest publications.
Style
Nabokov tells this story with an abundance of detail, in a narrative that does not allow itself to set aside a certain taste for richness, and the use of sometimes sophisticated terms-which has made it a celebrated trademark-accompanying puns, literary allusions, and accompanying nonlinear plot in presenting events.
