Fran Assa: I wonder if it was the quote below that Graham Greene was thinking about when he asked VN if he were a Catholic based on something he had read in Lolita*. 

Surely that must be what Greene had in mind. But Humbert actually rejects the priest's teaching.

 

When HH says "this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita", does he mean:

 

1. This is the only immortality there is (i.e. enduring pigments etc.).

2. This may be the only immortality there is.

3. The is the only immortality we shall be permitted to share.

4. If the latter, is this because she will be in heaven and he in the other place? (Recall VN's Preface to "Despair".)

 

Anthony Stadlen