I recently read Lolita and was really conflicted as to whether I liked it or not. In one sense it was an uncomfortable read but I found I couldn’t put it down. I see a lot of people saying that they hate it because Humbert is such a monster but surely that’s the point? Nabokov makes it such an uncomfortable read through putting it in first person; we are meant to slightly sympathise with Humbert (because of his unreliable narration) and then feel disgusted with ourselves. Combined with the ‘American Dream’/Academia/Psychological Thriller aesthetic it’s almost as much a mockery of society and its romanticisation of crime as The Secret History. This is even proven by Lolita’s resurgence in popular aesthetics and romanticisation.
This is one of my favorite books, although most of that is due to Nabokov’s incredible writing. Still, I’ve always seen this as more of a morality play about obsession. About how it can take over your life, turn you into a monster, drive you to do all kinds of obviously insane and harmful things, and even when you get what you’re after, it’s still hollow and not enough because obsession is it’s own hungry illness that’s separate from what you think you’re attaching it to. Not to erase the true horrors of pedophilia, I just never got the sense that’s what Nabokov was actually writing about. Also never thought we were supposed to sympathize with HH so much as watch what happens when someone is consumed by an obsession and bear witness to the unhappiness and destruction that ultimately follows.