I wonder how many people have actually read the novel's foreword, where the character John Ray Jr. explains that what we are about to read are the memoirs of Humbert Humbert, a man who has just died in prison, shortly before his trial begins. "No doubt, he is a shining example of moral leprosy," says John Ray Jr., adding that the text "no doubt, a classic in psychiatric circles. As a work of art, it transcends its expiatory aspects"
Or have they only seen the film?
Lolita is, above all, the story of the abuse of a young girl, told in a beautiful lyrical prose. Language has that power —and for that very reason, we must strive to be able to see beyond the aesthetic aspect. A test for the reader.
The writer Lola López Mondéjar, when speaking about how so many readers misinterpreted the novel, has another explanation: "The reception of Lolita overlooked the abuse, forgot the false prologue that should have guided its reading and rejoiced in Humbert's desire, elaborating a myth that responds to the hidden eroticism of many men."
Did you know that Nabokov himself explicitly requested that there be no girls on the book cover?
Did you know that some editions don't even include the foreword in the book?
#Bookstr

The New Yorker
Designing “Lolita”
Designing a cover for a controversial novel is always a fraught endeavor, but few novels come with as much visual baggage as “Lolita”…
Full text of "Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov"