Lolita

by Vladimir Nabokov

still more important to us than scientific significance and literary worth, is the ethical impact the book should have on the serious reader;

“Lolita” should make all of us—parents, social workers, educators—apply ourselves with still greater vigilance and vision to the task of bringing up a better generation in a safer world.

future? I had possessed her—and she never knew it.

Humbert Humbert, with thick black eyebrows and a queer accent, and a cesspoolful of rotting monsters behind his slow boyish smile.

All at once I knew I could kiss her throat or the wick of her mouth with perfect impunity. I knew she would let me do so, and even close her eyes as Hollywood teaches.

I was aware that mother Haze hated my darling for her being sweet on me.

We hasten to alienate the very fates we intended to woo.