Thirty years ago, when I first read "Lolita", I felt a sense of curiosity: A middle-aged man's love affair with a twelve-year-old girl hardly makes serious literary readers see it as art.My curiosity is two-fold: 1. How can a dignified literary writer describe such a theme vividly and vividly?2. How can his writing skills be so exquisite that literary critics are amazed and regarded as a masterpiece? The popularity of Lolita at that time was due to this dual interest of readers.The peculiarity of the content and the subtlety of the writing make it a book for both refined and popular tastes.

The success of "Lolitai" immediately sublimated the author Vladimir Nabkov into an internationally renowned figure.In an interview, Nabukov told reporters: "It is Lolita who is famous, not me." This is his humility.Nabkoff's name is not only well-known in the international literary world, but also has become a best-selling trademark in the publishing industry. He was born in 1899 and only enjoyed a high reputation in the West in 1958, when he was 60 years old.His success can be used as an encouragement to those unknown writers who are approaching their sixtieth age and are still working hard.Of course, I'm not saying that you just have to write a novel about sexuality (normal or not) to be successful.But we cannot deny that in the past hundred years, how many masterpieces of world literature have attracted readers for unusual reasons.Smiling readers thought Lolita was a "dirty book".Haven't Joyce's Ulysses, Lawrence's, and Henry Miller's autobiographical novels been equally notorious in the past?Few readers would consider a book describing a middle-aged man's lust for a twelve-year-old girl as serious literature.American female writer Erica Chung's debut novel "Fear of Flying" was labeled as obscene at the beginning.In fact, she was also a serious poet, but the portrait of her blonde beauty on the envelope did not help the sales of her books.Ms. Chung resents being misunderstood about her art, but she should blame the propaganda department of her own publisher.

Therefore, the writer is in a dilemma: on the one hand, he wants to sell well, and on the other hand, he wants to think of himself as noble.Publicity is necessary for literary works to achieve commercial success.Nabkov's early best-selling author experience was a bittersweet one.Before "Lolita" came out, he had written several novels in Russian, reviewed Gogol, and published short stories and poems.However, in the minds of Western readers, the "first novel" of this sixtieth-year-old writer was actually a story about coveting the body of a little girl, and Nabkov was teaching Tolstoy at Cornell University. , Pushkin, Chekhov, Kafka, Flaubert, Proust!

What then is the answer to our question about the novel written by Nabkov?How should literature explain its "erotic" and "obscene" elements? (, Is "Meat Fu Tuan" a classic of Chinese ancient literature?) Nabkov himself said this: "In ancient Europe, up to the eighteenth century, comedies, satires, and even the productions of a poet in a playful mood were deliberately lascivious. Today, the word pornography connotes mediocrity, commercialization... "Nabkoff believes that the description of true literature and art should be clearly distinguished from the simple and direct description." The action in low-grade pornography is limited to clichés Coitus; it seems to mean that the work should not use style, structure, and imagery to distract readers from lust. "

Sex is a part of life, and no creative artist can forget this important factor in life.Sex is depicted in Shakespeare and even in the Bible.The dividing line between kitsch and literary art is this: the former is explicit, stereotyped, and clichéd; the latter is imbued with original imagination. Nabkov considers Lolita to be his best English-language original.The author's gestation novels are just like women's gestation of babies, which require a pregnancy period.As early as the Berlin period in the 1930s, Nabukoff was already pregnant with this virginal love story, and finally published "The Enclanter" (The Encllanter) in Russian in Paris in 1939. "The Charming" is the predecessor of "Lolita" and is the last Russian work of Nabukovyo. The next year he immigrated to the United States with his wife and children at the age of forty.

The Charming contains all the elements of the later masterpiece Lolita: a middle-aged European man;The difference is that the last person killed by a truck in "The Charming" is the middle-aged pervert, while the victim in "Lolita" is the girl's mother. "The Charming" was translated into English by Nabkov's son in 1986 and published in the United States) When "Lolita" was published in the United States in 1958, Nabkov had only lived in the United States for ten years. eight years.What surprised readers like me was the author's familiarity with American scenes, American slang, and American teenagers in the 1950s.Not only that, because he is from Europe, his views are particularly fresh.But his creative prowess aside, his preoccupation with these kinds of storylines makes one wonder if he has coveted fantasies about young girls himself.

In fact, long before the publication of "The Charming", Nabukoff had already started the idea of ​​"Lolita" in his autobiographical novel "The Gift" written in Russian.The following passage is translated from English, "Oh, what a novel I could make if I had only a moment! Based on real life.Imagine the plot of the sample: an old jerk -- still in his prime, eager for the pleasures of life.He met a widow, and the widow had a daughter, a girl—you know what I mean—underdeveloped.But the way she walks can drive you crazy.A tiny girl, very pale, pale, with blue eyes.Of course she paid no attention to old perverts.How to do it?Without a second thought he married the widow.Ok.The three of them live together.From here on you can develop infinitely -- temptation, eternal torment, itch, mad hope.The ending -- was a miscalculation.Time flies, he's old, she's grown--not an ugly sausage.She walks by and casts you a contemptuous glance; it makes you feverish.

How about it?Do you think there is a Dostoevsky tragedy here?You know, a good friend of mine once had this experience..." Nabkov is not only a creative genius, but also a linguistic genius.English is not his mother tongue.Few international writers are so fluent in another language. The English vocabulary used in Lolita is astonishing.However, he also has a habit of using difficult and unfamiliar words, which was also criticized by Katherine White, the fiction editor of "The New Yorker" at the time.The name of the main character, Humbert Humbert, is hilarious.The author's detailed description of the protagonist is reminiscent of his careful consideration when using difficult words.Humbold Humbold has a special definition of ringworm for underdeveloped girls: the age must be between nine and twelve years old.

The object of Hembold's desire was elusive.He cannot possess such an object of lust, because time is running fast, and even while he possesses it, time will relentlessly evolve the girl child into a woman.From this point of view, many lovers who are falling in love should have a considerable sense of satisfaction after reading "Lolita": at least, what they are pursuing is not an object that is limited to four years and cannot be reached.I am bound to dismiss some readers as delusional in such a statement.But as Nabukoff said in his autobiographical novel, "From here on, you can develop infinitely..." Those of us who don't think too much about girls can at least appreciate a literary masterpiece. With the author's imagination, make some unrestrained play.

In the novel "Lolitay", the role of anti-sense seems to be time.A man is marching towards death from birth.Time is the enemy: Humboldt was in a hurry to enjoy the pleasures of life that he was particularly fond of; Lolita was growing, and Nabkov was in a hurry to write his masterpiece. He was nearly sixty years old when Lolita was published. How many years did he have left to complete all the works he wanted to create?Nabkov died in 1977, at the age of seventy-seven.Time is the biggest factor in life, and once a person is born, apart from making a living to fill his stomach, his greatest interest is lust, and his greatest fear is death. The hero of Lolita, Humboldt, is obsessed with these two concerns the entire time.Sex and death are common themes in literature.But the particularity of Hembold's obsession with Lolita is comparable to other types of obsessions.For example, the attention of a single-minded artist to the creative process; the attention of a scientist to the progress of his invention;This kind of attention is extremely tense.Hembold's love for Loretta is simply insane.His tension becomes the creator's tension" No wonder this work is recognized as a masterpiece.

The publication history of "Luoyutai" also contains Nabukov's individual characteristics.He finished the manuscript in the spring of 1954 and sent it to the publisher immediately.We should know that in 1954 America was still in the Middle Ages in terms of reading freedom, and books about sex were banned.I still remember not being able to buy an autobiographical novel by Lawrence or Henry Miller at a bookstore.In the library, these books are locked away.I also remember that the most poorly read book for young people at the time was Love Without Fear, a sex education book written by a doctor.At the time, even Norman Mailer had to use "fug" in place of another well-known four-letter word in his debut novel, The Naked and Dead.Thus, in this environment, the original Loreta was rejected immediately by the four major New York bookstores.The editors were overwhelmed by the story of middle-aged perverts coveting Kaijian girls.They knew that the manuscript was rich in literary value, but the Puritan society would not accept it. What is most surprising today is that Nabkov's friends at the time, the famous critics Edmund Wilson and Mary McCarthy, seemed unable (or dare not?) Appreciate. Although Nakobuff claimed that "this is my best book in English", the Wilsons were asked to read it.But today, we read in Wilson's letter collection, he wrote back to Nabkov: "I don't like this one of your works I have read." The writing criticism of "Luo Ertai" is "sloppy and careless." We certainly understand that not even the greatest writer in the world can objectively appreciate another writer's masterpiece.Literati are lighter.Chinese and foreign ancient and modern alike.Especially when a groundbreaking book comes out, critics take a moment of skepticism.When Nabkov first arrived in the United States, Wilson helped a lot, such as recommending his works to the "New Yorker" magazine.However, he not only accused the original manuscript of "Lolita" as "abominable", "unrealistic" and "too annoying", but also submitted his own opinions to his publisher.After being rejected by the American publishing industry, "Lolita" was finally published by Olympia Books in Paris the following year.The father of the owner of the bookstore was the one who boldly published Henry Miller's autobiographical novels in the 1930s.History does repeat itself.Olympia Books has also published works by other writers such as Samuel Beckett and William Poros. The first edition of "Luo Maotai" was only 5,000 copies.After reading it, the British writer Graham Greene wrote a review in The Times of London and praised it as one of the three best small taxes in 1955.This time, "Lolita" became an international bestseller. The difference between Green's views and that of Will and the editors of the bookstore is that what the former sees is literature and words, but the latter only sees obscene words on the surface.It can be said that Green's final victory in the literary world is all due to Green.After Green's favorable comment, the small American literary magazine "Anchor Review" also paid attention, and the excerpt was published. The young editor of this magazine at the time was Jason Epp, who is currently in charge of the biweekly editorial staff of "New York Review of Books" stan.Soon the bookstores in the United States and the United Kingdom also changed their original intentions, and successively published "Lolita" in Britain, the United States, and Canada. When the first edition of "Lolita" was published by Olympia Books in Paris, the British government authorities asked the French government to ban it.After the advent of Britain and the United States, the British cabinet also held a meeting to debate, but there was no ban on sale.New Zealand later banned the sale. "Lolita" was published in the United States by Putnam Books on July 21, 1958, and it immediately became a bestseller, and climbed to the first place in the "New York Times" bestseller list in January 1959 ! (It was eventually squeezed out of the throne by another Russian writer, Pasternak.) Most of the book reviews at that time focused on the disputes of the so-called "Lolita Incident", rather than the literary value of the book. Of course, such publicity has greatly increased the interest of readers and the public, and increased the sales of the book.Only the female author Elizabeth Janeway (EIizabeth Janeway)'s review saw the Shakespearean tragicomedy in this book: "I think Humboldt's fate has a traditional Shakespearean tragedy... Humboldt is an ordinary man driven by lust. Ordinary people. He covets Loretta to such an extent that he does not regard her as a human being, but only as a dream-made body—isn't this madness universal and eternal?" Ms. Zhenwei pointed out the characteristics of immortal classics (horizontal cosmicity, vertical eternity).Today, "Lolita" has been recognized by the world as a classic of modern literature.But there is no shortage of ignorant people in society.It and many other masterpieces are still banned in the libraries of some American towns.Forty-two-year-old Lolita (person), thirty-year-old "Lolita" (book) should be considered mature. Diverse book reviews This is the funniest serious novel I have ever read. — The Atlantic Monthly The book has great literary value; more than that, its genre, character, and brilliance are enough to create a new tradition for American writers. ——Free Catholic Commonwealth Weekly Is a good book, an outstanding book - yes - a great book. — Esquire Magazine It's the funniest, saddest book ever written. --New York Times The author Nabokov is an artist of the first order, a writer of great tradition... probably the best novel to appear in this country... since Faulkner's rise in the thirties, Nabokov may be the most important writers. -- The New Republic is a novel full of astonishing wit and energy, and no one can match Nabokov's writing on the vulgar side of American society, such as the squalor and absurdity of American motels, is a very rich subject matter, and finally found Nabokov, a poet and sociologist, wrote it perfectly. —Marcus Cunliffe: A Brief History of American Literature