Lolita: A Janus Text

This series provides readable guides to the literary works most frequently studied in secondary school. Since its publication in the 1950s, many critics have characterised Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita as a tale of lust, sexual obsession, and immorality. In this path-breaking study of the novel, Olsen argues that it is not merely a book about obscenity but an ethical book about obscenity. Contrary to popular perception, Nabokov held fundamentally conservative values that were masked by his experimental prose style and his interest in sexual metaphors and attitudes. Lolita , Olsen contends, is not an endorsement of promiscuity but an exploration of the moral and social failings it entails.