Not sure if this matters, but this question came about even earlier
(before I started reading Lolita) when I was reading an essay by
Joseph Campbell where he mentions Dante meeting Beatrice for the first
time when they were both nine years old.
Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks. And pardon my ignorance if
I missed something here.
Beatrice is Dante's muse whom he hopes to meet in heaven. Lolita is
performing the same function for HH. But in an earthly context. The
novel is just a restless pursuit by HH of something he lost when he
was a youth; maybe a vision of youth itself.
Anyway, Appel, Jr feels that the novel is more influenced by Poe's
poem "Annabel Lee" than any other work of literature. "Annabell Haze,
alias Delores Lee alias Loleeta."
It's a hard novel to understand, it's filled with hundreds of literary
allusions, puns and metaphors. I had to go over the notes
carefully to really understand it.
I'm still not certain I understand exactly what Nabokov was getting
at. Lolita came out in 1955 when I was 11. I read it and did not
understand much of what was said then; I understand only a little more
now.