10
votes
Accepted
What evidence is there that Vladimir Nabokov was abused as a child?
Discussions of the topic contain sensitive content.
No, his biographers don’t think there’s good evidence.
The closest seems to be Andrew Field’s VN, the life and art of Vladimir Nabokov (1986):
...
- 1,896
9
votes
Accepted
Did Humbert kill a female pedestrian towards the end of Lolita?
After shooting Quilty in Chapter 35, Humbert in chapter 36 has been driving on the wrong side of the road (‘not exceeding 20 miles an hour’), then, when he sees two police cars blocking his progress ...
- 1,229
7
votes
In Lolita, is there any evidence that Humbert committed a second murder?
Maybe what some readers see as suggested foul play is the heavy, recurring interpretation that Humbert is responsible for all the events in the story, but only secondary to the will of whatever ...
- 71
4
votes
Analyzing the alliteration of the first line of Lolita
In poetry, alliteration requires stressed syllables that begin with the same consonant sound. Nabokov's novel Lolita is written in prose, so we don't need to analyse the metre to determine which ...
- 48.6k
3
votes
In Lolita, is there any evidence that Humbert committed a second murder?
To respond to the first quote, H.H. does correct Lolita,
'Moreover,' I (H.H) added, 'the tragedy of such an accident is somewhat cheapened by the epithet (the adjective murdered in the quote you ...
- 31
2
votes
Accepted
What exactly drove Humbert’s preference for preteens?
Humbert is primarily a hebephile, sexually attracted to young pubescent females. His relationships with adult females are entirely to facilitate access to their children, and they are unfulfilling.
As ...
- 11.1k
2
votes
Were the early sexual experiences of Lolita and her classmates inspired by the real experience of children in New England in 1947?
While it's hard to prove a negative, it is extremely unlikely that Nabokov based this passage on any kind of real-world or second-hand knowledge.
As the essay The Long 1950s in the collection Vladimir ...
- 23.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible