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Stream of Consciousness
Part 1, Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis:
The style of the novel is linguistically complex and filled with literary allusions, reflecting Humbert Humbert’s own background as a professor of literature. Humbert’s narration in Chapter 1, in which he reflects upon a girl whom he loved when he was a young boy (Lolita’s “precursor”), reflects the ornate style of the novel:
Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, a certain initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style.
Here, Humbert somewhat sarcastically refers to his own “fancy prose style,” or his tendency to write in a complex manner that lends a false sense of grandeur to his own immoral and criminal behavior. He describes the French seaside town where he was born, for example, as a “princedom by the sea,” language drawn from from the poem "Annabel Lee" by Edgar Allan Poe, which is referenced at various points in the novel. Additionally, rather than merely stating how old he was when he met Lolita’s “precursor,” a girl named (in another reference to the poem) Annabel Leigh, he writes that his age was “about as many years before Lolita was born.” In other words, Lolita was born around 13 years after he himself was 13 years old. This complex, riddle-like phrasing, which obscures the actual difference in their ages, is typical of Humbert’s narrative style throughout the novel.
Related Themes:
