Am I alone to feel the last clause below (starting "About...") bewilderingly weird ?
"... there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, a certain initial girl-child....Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer."
The English is straight, and the logic is flawless (it is a perfect answer to the question 'when?' ) But somehow it totally throws me off course.
Maybe I am alone.
I find it charmingly poetic.
Peter
This is like a math riddle. The "certain initial girl-child" was obviously not Lolita. If the character (Humbert Humbert) was, say, 16 years old at the time of that initial encounter, then the story line declares that character was 16 years older than Lolita. The Lolita character (Dolores Haze) was 12 years old in the novel, which would make the protagonist (antagonist?) 28 at the time of their encounters.
I agree with Robert though ... seems like Nabokov could have been a bit more transparent with his narrative. But I also agree with Tromboniator that it's kind of a poetic way to say something that could have been expressed more simply. I guess that's what great writing is all about. Many "lists" put Lolita in the top 100 novels of all time. Personally, I didn't much care for it.
Heimhenge said
This is like a math riddle. The "certain initial girl-child" was obviously not Lolita. If the character (Humbert Humbert) was, say, 16 years old at the time of that initial encounter, then the story line declares that character was 16 years older than Lolita. The Lolita character (Dolores Haze) was 12 years old in the novel, which would make the protagonist (antagonist?) 28 at the time of their encounters.
I think you're calculating this wrong. Â If Humbert was 16 at the time of the encounter with the earlier girl, then he was 32 when Lolita was born. Â Since she is now 12, he is now 48. Â However, other places in the book (he was born in 1910 and it is currently 1947) show that he is now 36 or 37, about 3 times older than Lolita. Â So he must have been 12 at the earlier encounter.
Also, Robert asks in his heading, "Is it because it's Russian ?" Â I just discovered that, even though Nabokov was Russian, Lolita was written in English and later translated to Russian. Â That probably makes no difference since a Russian mind came up with the wording.
I, too, believe it is poetic and was written this way to achieve that end.
Dick Said: I think you're calculating this wrong. Â If Humbert was 16 at the time of the encounter with the earlier girl, then he was 32 when Lolita was born. Â Since she is now 12, he is now 48. Â However, other places in the book (he was born in 1910 and it is currently 1947) show that he is now 36 or 37, about 3 times older than Lolita. Â So he must have been 12 at the earlier encounter.
You are, of course, correct. Note to self: Do not attempt arithmetic after 1 am. Â 