Lolita

By Vladimir Nabokov; annotated by Alfred Appel, Jr.

Humbert Humbert is a pedophile from Europe. He lusts after young girls which he calls nymphets, claiming these youngsters have a come-hither and alluring appearance. Possessed of independent means, Humbert leaves Europe and heads to America, looking to prey on some child there. He finds a home with Charlotte Haze who has a daughter, Dolores, who is twelve and of whom Humbert becomes obsessed at first sight. Figuring that being married to Charlotte will give him better access to Dolores, with whom Humbert has only had limited contact so far (one particularly nasty session occurs when the girl innocently lays her legs in his lap and Humbert rubs himself to climax against her legs while singing a loud, silly song to cover what he is doing), Humbert marries the eager Charlotte. The jig is up, though, when Charlotte finds his journal in which he details his lust for her daughter and his scorn for herself. In her agitation and distress, Charlotte rushes out of her house and is struck and killed by a car, leaving Humbert as the sole guardian of Dolores.
Humbert hits the road with Dolores after taking her out of summer camp and without telling her of her mother's death. He has his cruel way with the girl then spends the next year traveling the country with his captive. Eventually he wearies of the constant travel and they settle down in a town where Dolores attends school. Humbert keeps Dolores in his control with threats and lies, leaving her to believe that she will be in as much trouble with the law as he if she turns him in and being a naive kid she believes him. Still she resents and despises Humbert and she becomes involved with another man behind Humbert's back. Humbert suspects this but can't prove it so he pulls Dolores out of school and they start traveling around again. Dolores maintains contact with her lover behind Humbert's back and eventually gives Humbert the slip and runs off with the other man, a fellow called Clare Quilty, who is as twisted and as sick a bastard as Humbert himself.
The last part of the novel is mostly about Humbert's desire to hunt down Dolores and to kill Quilty for stealing her from him. As he progresses he finally admits to himself just exactly how much damage he did to an innocent child and how much she has lost because of him.

This book was a giant pain to read. Going into it, with some preconceptions, it turned out not to be so much erotic as it was difficult. It is stuffed full of French phrases, hard and obscure words, and literary allusions up the wazoo. Frankly, if I didn't have the annotated version I doubt I would have read it past the first few chapters. Even with the annotated version the literary references were just too much. This book is not light reading! The Annotated Lolita was put together by Alfred Appel, Jr., and it was super helpful.
Despite its intellectual slant, the subject matter is sad and depressing and upsetting. Humbert was scum and reading about his abuse of Dolores was not fun. Humbert and Quilty get theirs in the end but Humbert's regrets and capture and Quilty's murder are not enough to make up for having to wallow in their filth. I didn't like the book but apparently it does have its fans. For another review see The Atlantic.

New Words
Usually, when I put a word on the new word list I include the sentence from the book that contained the word. However this book had so many new words that I am not going to include the pertinent sentence, it would just make the list much too long.

Solecisms: a solecism is a mistake in grammar; an idiom.
Etiolated: etiolate means to deprive of strength; weaken.
Apotheosis: A glorified example, the apex of perfection.
Paleopedology: paleopedology is the study of geologic soils.
Aeolian harp: a harp having strings tuned in unison; they sound when wind passes over them.
Lycée: a French academic high school.
Solipsism: the philosophical theory that the self is all that you know to exist.
Plage: the beach at a seaside resort.
Beetle-browed: sullen or unfriendly in appearance.
Manqué: Unfulfilled due to some inherent flaw or an often uncertain constitutional lacking of some kind.
Uranists: a uranist is a homosexual.
Pastiches: a pastiche is a work of art that intentionally imitates other works, often to ridicule or satire.
Mympholepts: A nympholept is a person suffering from nympholepsy, which is a frenzied state of (usually erotic) emotion, especially concerning something or someone unattainable.
Fascinum: an ivory phallus used in certain ancient erotic rites.
Axillary: of or having to do with the armpit or underarm areas.
Frétillement: movement; wriggling.
Grues: a grue is a prostitute, a slut, a drab.
Pot-au-feu: a stew of meat and vegetables.
Estampe: a print or engraving.
Coruscating: glittering, sparkling.
Favonian: pertaining to the west wind; mild, gentle.
Phocine: pertaining to a seal; seal-like.
Nates: the buttocks.
Charshaf: the veil worn by Turkish women.
Pederosis: pedophilia.
Monogrammic: of, pertaining to, or resembling, a monogram.
Iliac: Iliac refers to the ilium, which are the large, wing-like bones of the pelvis.
Catullus: a Roman lyric poet remembered for his love poems to an aristocratic Roman woman (84-54 BC).
Neuralgia: severe sharp pain along the course of a nerve.
Incondite: unpolished, unrefined, referring to literary works; jumbled, long winded.
Cretonnes: Cretonne is a heavy unglazed cotton, linen, or rayon fabric, colorfully printed and used for draperies and slipcovers.
Congeneric: Congener means a member of the same kind, class, or group.
Saporous: tasty.
Acrosonic: This word was coined up by Nabokov and it meant a noise reaching to and past the sonic barrier.
Olisbos: a dildo.
Argent: the heraldic color silver or white.
Glaucous: sea-green or pale blue-green.
Tombal: like a tomb.
Lentigo: lentigo is a freckle; a small brownish spot on the skin. Plumbaceous umbrae: Latin for leaden shadows.
Mägdlein: German for little girl.
Purblind: having poor sight; slow in understanding.
Backfisch: German for an immature, adolescent girl; a teenager.
Lentor: slowness, slugishness; viscosity.
Antiphony: an antiphon is alternate, or responsive singing by a choir split into two parts; a piece sung or chanted in this manner.
Nebulous: in the form of a cloud or haze; hazy; vague or ill-defined; relating to a nebula or nebulae.
Emeritus: retired or honorably discharged from active professional duty, but retaining the title of one’s office or position.
Callypygean: also spelled callipygian, it means pertaining to or having finely developed buttocks.
Clathrate: having a lattice-like structure pierced with holes or windows.
Swooners: Nabokov coined this word and uses it to refer to some type of clothing that was worth swooning over.
Trochaic: one stressed syllable followed by unstressed syllable.
Gouache: a thick, opaque watercolour paint; a painting made with this paint.
Inutile: lacking in utility or serviceability; not useful; unprofitable.
Samaras: a samara is a dry fruit with one or two flat wings attached to a seed, as on ash trees and maples.
Teleological: of or pertaining to teleology; showing evidence of design or purpose.
Canthus: either of the corners of the eye where the upper and lower eyelids meet.
Kurort: German for health resort, spa, watering place.
Lanugo: soft down or fine hair, specifically as covering the human fetus.
Pollex: Latin for thumb.
Viatic: of or relating to traveling, a road, or a way.
Natatoriums: a natatorium is a swimming pool, especially indoors.
Pavonine: like a peacock; iridescent.
Oculate: relating to the the eye.
Raffish: cheaply or showily vulgar in appearance or nature; tawdry; low-class; disreputable; vulgar.
Leporine: of, relating to, or resembling a hare or rabbit.
Salutory: Salutary. Unpleasant, but ultimately providing a useful lesson; promoting good health; wholesome; curative.
Orchideous: like an orchid.
Habitus: Latin for moral condition, state, disposition, character.
Mythopoeic: giving rise to myths.
Dackel: a dachshund.
Remises: carriage houses.
Envoy: An envoy (or envoi) is a short stanza at the end of a poem used either to address an imagined or actual person or to comment on the preceding body of the poem.
Ballade: not to be confused with ballad, a ballade is a a poem consisting of three stanzas and an envoy.
Tesselated: marked with little checks or squares, like tiles.
Tyros: a tyro is a novice: someone new to a field or activity.
Wimbles: a wimble is any of various hand tools for boring holes.
Syncope: in phonetics, syncope is the loss of one or more sounds from the interior of a word; especially, the loss of an unstressed vowel. Syncope is also a brief period of fainting or collapse.
Purling: gently murmuring, as a brook.
Alembics: an alembic is a kind of flask used by alchemists for distilling.
Fatamorganas: mirages.
Erlkönig: the king of the elves, from a poem where an elf king pursues a little boy traveling with his father.
Mordant: a substance used in dyeing to fix the coloring matter.
Gitanilla: little gypsy girl.
Maquette: a small model of an intended work, such as a sculpture or piece of architecture.
Telestically: with the projection of a purpose, with a definite end in view, inwardly expressed.
Logodaedaly: the arbitrary or capricious coining of words.
Logomancy: Nabokov's coined word, logo (word) plus -mancy (divination).
Undinist: a person who derives sexual pleasure from urine and urination.
Bodkin: a dagger or stiletto.
Ancilla: accessory, aid.
Appended: Append means to hang or attach to, as by a string, so that the thing is suspended; to add, as an accessory to the principal thing; to annex; as, notes appended to a chapter.
Lithophanic: lithophane is a porcelain panel with a relief decoration that is visible when light passes through it.
Turpid: Foul; base; wicked; disgraceful.
Physiognomization: Physiognomy is the art of judging human character from facial features; divination based on facial features.
Penele: a coined word, penele means penis-like.
Selenian: of or relating to the moon.
Flavid: yellowish or tawny.
Herculanita: heroin.
Palearctic and Nearctic: one of the four world faunal regions which is subdivided into the Palearctic (Europe and Asia) and the Nearctic (North America).