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jansymello wrote:
>In this article my attention was captivated by the observation
on "Lolita" linked to modernity and the Western world: "the sexual
predator Humbert Humbert", thereby dismissing the love-story in Lolita
-
and almost everything else - by generally misplacing HH's confessions
in
VN's best-selling work. I wonder if other L-participants were similarly
taken aback by this kind of summing up of last century's
Russian-American
Nabokov's novel.
MR: Jansy, I have had rather the opposite experience. I am ever
exasperated by publishers and film companies that characterize
_Lolita_ as a "love story." I rather think sexual predator is a
better description (though of course still terribly reductive) of
HH than, say, lover or sweetheart! Indeed, doesn't HH himself
describe himself as a rapist? Certainly Lolita is never shown to
be "in love" with HH. She cries herself to sleep every night, as
Vera Nabokov pointed out once. Anyway, I'd be interested to hear
where you see a "love-story" in the novel.
Best,
Matt Roth