The seduction

At 50, Nabokov's 'Lolita' still seduced -- and disturbs

Vladimir Nabokov (left) in September 1958. ''L'Affaire Lolita,'' as the French had christened it, was just beginning its long career. THE ELOQUENCE OF EVIL? James Mason as Humbert Humbert (top right) in Stanley Kubrick's 1962 film version of ''Lolita.'' Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann (bottom right), in confinement in Jerusalem in 1961. Eichmann's disgust with ''Lolita'' raises the unsettling question of how to read the novel.

By Leland de la Durantaye

August 28, 2005

E-mail|
Reprints|

Text size – +

IN THE SPRING OF 1940, on the last crossing of a French ocean liner that would be sunk by German U-boats on its return voyage, Vladimir Nabokov, his wife, and his young son arrived in New York. The family's first, precarious years in America brought many changes, but one element remained constant. Every summer, Nabokov and his wife would drive ... (Full article: 1782 words)