Lolita

Humbert lists dozens of roadside attractions he and Lolita visited in an effort to keep her happy. He picks destinations out of guidebooks and they drive to them, Lolita bored the whole way. Humbert admits America is nicer than he thought but that they did not see it in the proper way, as they only focused on Americana and not natural beauty or culture. Lolita learns the different types of hitchhikers and is always eager to pick them up. She flirts with most boys she sees, and Humbert suspects the amount of sex they have gives her an attractive aura. Humbert also grows suspicious when he thinks he sees Lolita looking at a car and when he sees Lolita is talking to a man while she plays tennis. He allows her some fun, as he likes to watch her play with other girls, but he also admits they have many conflicts. The attention she gives to others hurts him, even as he tries to make her happy enough to continue having sex with him. His main goal is to continue their sexual activity in secret; at the same time, he is happy and thinks he is a good father. 

Humbert can see Lolita is pulling away from him and even jokes she is the “Frigid Princess” as a pun on an ice cream shop called the Frigid Queen. He says that modern psychiatrists would suggest that he could get over his subconscious obsession by recreating with Lolita his failed sexual encounter with Annabel. Humbert tries just that and takes her to a beach, but he feels the beach cannot match the Riviera of his youth. There, he has no desire for Lolita, but he says Lolita and Annabel have already blended so it does not matter. Instead, he takes Lolita to various natural outdoor locations, even getting caught in the mountains with a pair of twins and their mother, from whom Humbert and Lolita eventually manage to escape. Lolita loves movies, and Humbert takes her to hundreds of films. Her favorites are musicals, gangster films, and Westerns; during one movie, Humbert is seen fondling Lolita by two women. Lolita never seeks help in these situations, even when police are nearby.

Humbert is running out of money and is increasingly worried about being caught, so he takes a job teaching at the Beardsley Women’s College where he knows a professor who has been using his textbooks. He plans to send Lolita to an all-girls school nearby. Humbert recognizes the danger in settling in the northeast again, but he feels he has no choice. He feels that their trips across the USA have “only defiled” the country and left them seeing and experiencing nothing. Additionally, he knows Lolita cries every night while Humbert pretends to sleep.

Gaston Godin, Humbert’s acquaintance at Beardsley College, helps Humbert rent a house from a chemistry professor. The house at 14 Thayer Street is as bland as Charlotte’s house, but Humbert likes the study. He is also disappointed in the Beardsley School for Girls which he thinks is too progressive. Humbert desires a school that emphasizes academic study, but the headmistress at Beardsley tells Humbert the girls focus on the “four D’s: Dramatics, Dance, Debating, and Dating” (177). She says girls are involved in a world of socializing that he could not understand and mispronounces his and Lolita’s names many times in the conversation. Other teachers assure Humbert that traditional instruction does take place, so he agrees to send Lolita to the school. He likes that he can see the playground from his house; he can gaze at Lolita and other girls, many of whom he hopes might be nymphets. However, builders soon block his view with a fence, never returning to the site to finish the work they start. 

Humbert’s neighbors on either side are English professors. One makes small talk about Gaston Godin and Lolita’s loveliness, but he thinks the other neighbor snoops on him. Humbert is also worried that Lolita might tell their cook and maid, Mrs. Hooligan, about their affair, so he keeps them apart. He is also terrified Mrs. Hooligan will find a clue that reveals the truth about his relationship with Lolita. 

Humbert’s friend Gaston is well-liked in the community, as most in Beardsley see him as a sophisticated French genius. Humbert plays chess with him and enjoys his company, although he finds Gaston to be less intelligent than others do; he likes that Gaston’s friendship provides security for him. Gaston’s home is filled with paintings by famous artists as well as portraits of the boys in town, all of whom he apparently knows. Gaston’s story ends a year after his time with Humbert—he is involved in a dirty story—what Humbert refers to as a “sale histoire”—in Naples and does not return from Europe. 

Humbert describes a “definite drop in Lolita’s morals” (183) that occurs in Beardsley. Even though Humbert offers her several gifts and an allowance, she wants more money and starts demanding payment before she will satisfy Humbert sexually. He breaks into her room to find the various places where she hides her money, stealing it back so she cannot amass enough to run away from him. 

Humbert has started to read the advice column in the local paper to find out how to handle the question of teenage girls and boys. The column advises fathers to invite boys into the house to make both the daughter and their dates feel at ease, but Humbert jokes that doing so would turn the house into a bordello. He allows Lolita to talk to boys in a group but will not allow her to see boys on her own, although he is suspicious she is seeing someone. He notes that she seems to have adapted surprisingly well to Beardsley and thinks he is doing a good job of mimicking what a father would be. In bed after a “session of adoration and despair in Lolita’s cold bedroom” (188), he imagines what he looks like to the townspeople; he thinks they might liken him to a movie star.

Humbert looks forward to meeting Lolita’s friends but is disappointed that so few are nymphets. He overhears a conversation between Lolita and her friend Mona Dahl in which Mona jokes that nothing about Lolita is virginal except for the wool of her sweater. Humbert worries that Lolita is dating someone or that she has told Mona of their relationship. He asks Mona for details of Lolita’s boyfriends, but she flirts with him instead of answering his questions. Humbert wonders if Lolita is “playing the pimp” (192) and ignores Mona’s seeming advances.

Humbert describes how, occasionally, four or five times at most, he begs for Lolita’s sexual favors, literally crawling on his knees while she tries to do homework. She always refuses.