Charlotte Haze and her dishy daughter

He should've seen that coming - Lolita will undoubtedly grow up to be physically like her mom. At twelve she's already showing signs of a dulling of the curves due to plumpness. No, that only looks like baby fat.

Charlotte Haze almost raped poor Humbert earlier on in the book, but his innocent little Lolita, the unspoiled little angel, proved more "vestigal" virgin than 'vestal'.
She had it on with a lump at camp.

Nabokov doesn't really make clear why Lolita "seduced" Humbert. Perhaps she simply wanted to get it over with, but more likely she though of it as a way of getting her hooks into the man. He proves a willing victim. Overkill. The merest of hooks would've been more than enough.

She's cunning. Knowing in one sense, but she doesn't really know. She is simply showing off her superficial awareness of a new party trick to an appreciative adult.

Of course, Charlotte's only hook for Humbert was her daughter, and though enormously strong, it wasn't enough. Charlotte never caught Humbert, he simply swam into the boat. She lost her grip, lost her life, and Humbert was still hooked.


They drive all over the country in Charlotte's car, heading further west. There's something twisted about using the dead mother's vehicle as the device that binds them together in perpetual shuddering motion. Especially as this is the second time they have done so - a journey to recapture her lost innocence, his lost enchantment.

She was never innocent (just rather ignorant), and he exchanges his glib cynical attitude for paranoia and disillusionment.
Things will happen soon. I sense an impeding gloom called Clare Quilty.


周小燕