The Power of Lolita
In 1955, Vladimir Nabokov published his most famous work, Lolita . Lolita was included on Time's list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005 and was fourth in the Modern Library's 1998 list of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th century. Its reputation is vast; its influence is bigger still. What follows is an extract from my PhD where I discuss this novel and gives great insights into the creation of one of the greatest novels ever written. Lolita did not come to Nabokov fully formed in the mid-1950s. In 1939, he wrote a novella that remained unpublished until 1986, following his death in 1977. That novel, entitled The Enchanter , Nabokov would go onto describe as “the first little throb of Lolita ” in an essay that would subsequently be attached to that great novel. Like Lolita , it is concerned with ephebophilia and the same technique of a predatory older man to gain access to his desire as Humbert Humbert...