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The subject matter, of a middle-aged man desiring a young girl, a nymphet of 12 at the beginning of their affair, was so outrageous that the sheer delicacy and also the wit of the writing was hardly commented on. Lolita was not, in fact, about sex - it was about love and it was about erotic emotion, not any kind of pornography. Humbert is one of the most self-aware narrators in contemporary fiction, and mocks, and derides, and lashes himself with wonderful energy. He sees himself as others see him and is merciless in attacking what he is doing to Lolita, quite clear-eyed about what she is doing to herself. This reviewer has never been able to find in any of Nabokov's other work quite the vitality, and beauty there is in this extraordinary novel. (Kirkus UK)
