Lolita, Part One: So Far, So Good. So Wrong?

I’m going to tell you something. An admission so dark, so profane, it just might cause you to question my moral integrity. Are you ready? Here it is: I’ve finished reading Part One of Lolita and...I LIKED IT.

Now, I know what you may be thinking. How can you like that book? Don’t you find it repulsive? Don’t you find it to be at least slightly pornographic? Considering the novel’s subject matter, these are perfectly valid questions. I, too, might be a little concerned about someone who went around admitting he (or she, but more so a he) liked Lolita. But before you navigate away in disgust–if you haven’t already–please allow me a chance to explain.

In no way am I trying to suggest that reading the first half of Lolita caused me no discomfort whatsoever. Quite the contrary, in fact. There were several scenes which caused me to squirm in my seat and provoked my eyes to scan the page a bit faster than normal. Take, for example, the scene in which Humbert Humbert, Lolita’s perverse narrator, spies Lo for the first time and is instantly reminded of his former “nymphet” lover, Annabel:

It was the same child–the same frail, honey-hued shoulders, the same silky supple bare back, the same chestnut head of hair...I recognized the tiny dark-brown mole on her side... I saw again her lovely indrawn abdomen where my southbound mouth had briefly paused, and those puerile hips on which I had kissed the crenulated imprint left by the band of her shorts.

For obvious reasons, this is not an easy passage to read. But for every uncomfortable scene such as this, there are seemingly dozens more that contain examples of Nabokov’s literary prowess. Evocative phrases such as “in a princedom by the sea” or “Most of the dandelions had changed from suns to moons.” Homonymic wordplay such as “Our Glass Lake” versus “Hourglass Lake.” An impressive vocabulary that includes words such as “procrustean,” “cantrip,” and “tendresse.” And don’t forget that famous opening line: “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.”

I guess what I’m trying to say is that thus far the good far outweighs the bad. Yes, there are scenes in Part One of Lolita that many readers might (should?) find objectionable and not so easy to read, but they are relatively few and far between. Ultimately, readers are rewarded for their fortitude with glimpses of Nabokov at play, which is truly a joy to experience.