I coveted the false power of the ingenue in secret. I too see Lolita advancing in slow motion toward Humbert’s gifts – and a shiver of recognition runs through me.Īs a teenager, I wanted to be Lolita – just as so many good girls in the West in the late 20th century were effectively trained to do. And in the roll call of memory the book unfurls in a cinematic wave: vivid, illicit, frightening. I have read Lolita every decade since I was a teenager. For Nabokov, the “hollows” and “byroads” of Lolita glow “like a pilot light somewhere in the basement” the novel “throbs” in his “own private thermostat” as a constant comforting presence. His assessment rings true, though in my mind the sensations land differently. These are the secret points, the subliminal coordinates by means of which the book is plotted. Nabokov wants you to see the novel as he does: as points on a map, literal and figurative.Īnd when I thus think of Lolita, I seem always to pick out for special delectation such images as Mr Taxovich, or that class list of Ramsdale school, or Charlotte saying “waterproof”, or Lolita in slow motion advancing toward Humbert’s gifts, or the pictures decorating the stylised garret of Gaston Godin, or the Kasbeam barber (who cost me a month of work), or Lolita playing tennis, or the hospital at Elphinstone, or pale pregnant, beloved, irretrievable Dolly Schiller dying in Gray Star or the tinkling sound of the valley town coming up the mountain trail these are the nerves of the novel. The specimens they collected, pinned and captured under cut glass are preserved in museums all over the country like a trail of breadcrumbs. When Nabokov was writing Lolita, he and his wife Vera were crisscrossing the United States butterfly hunting. This is a sleight of hand that today would be advised by a shiny PR team and a coterie of lawyers wringing their hands (but not written nearly as well). We sense in his elegant desperation the desire not to have his masterwork reduced to a scandalous headline – to “the psychological urges of a pervert” – and thus to the very thing that drove the masses toward it. Going up the side is lilac string lacing, and around the top is a pale pink band trim with decorative black lace around the top.Some might find Nabokov’s self assessment deliberately evasive. The top is a fuchsia belt with silver buckle, with the bottom trim by decorative dark purple lace.īlack knee-length boots with a fuchsia sole that has a thin wedge heel. A band of black goes around the bottom and is lined with pearl studs, followed by a layer of grey frills and black lace. On the bottom left is a fuchsia pair of lips and three hearts, all lined in white. A silver chain necklace with a pink pearl hanging from it is included, along with a white bracelet with an attached chain connected to multiple pearl and gem dangles.Ī lilac diamond padded miniskirt with pearls sewn to each corner. This section and the sleeves are lined by black lace frills, and on the corners of the fabric is lavender string laced through it, along with three fuchsia studs. The bottom has slightly darker line detail to match the sleeve cuff and fabric folded over the chest. Description Black Lace Kiss Sweater Ī pale pink knit off-shoulder with long sleeves and a pattern of dull purple jaguar print.
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