Lolita (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Vladimir Nabokov
- First Published: 1955
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Satire
- Subjects: 1950’s, United States or Americans, France or French people, Sex or sexuality, Murder or homicide, 1940’s, Jealousy, envy, or resentment, Obsession, Kidnapping, Voyeurism
- Locales: France, United States
Lolita, generally considered Nabokov's greatest novel, unites wildly grotesque parody, farce, and pathos with two powerful, shocking subjects: the passionate feelings of a grown man toward a pubescent girl and the complex nature of romantic love, which is not only tender and generous but also ruthless and even totalitarian.
The novel's middle-aged, middle-European narrator “writes” this book as his confession while in a prison cell awaiting trial for murder. His double-talk name, Humbert Humbert, sets the tone of punning parody that pervades the text, as various...
[The entire page is 956 words long]
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