august 18, 1958

‘, 5, ‘I( ‘, hand,“, at-id were $0 ,mastered by many Beyond its pedq3gie value, whish iS despicable and brutal, and turpid, gentlemen before modern tiines. Most obviously limi’ted to artists, this, is a a’nd ,everything, mair je t’aiq>za;J, je of the great painters df China, as most of its great poets, were men occupying’ book, of great. beauty’ for anybody. The. 1 c positions analogous t’o those ‘filled by pages of, ,TJ&e ,A4&Ga~d Seed Glwdeqt tf&nais! Ayd there zweye times when I Iknew how you felt, and it was hell have a si@Je ‘,charm which is ap:’ Defense Secretary %%$lson ,and the late proached only’ by, certain eighteenth td knoti it, my; little one. il’ Senator McCarthy. P&de+- that fbr a centm-y French masfers of drawing, ‘, And indeed he did love her, for Hum- while, and you will readily ‘grasp the themselveS of ,course greatly influenced bert Humbert ,&,a nian, a whole, comic man. The book’s chief ‘offense, I ,guess, difference b&ween” the American Way by the ,Chinese, even by this very bdok. - it of Life atid the traditional Chinese. To To illustrate her introduction, Miss Sae IS’. that it’ presents a sexual pervert as haSe something to say in thk arts, the’ a man to ‘be known and pitied, a man c Chinese believed, ,6ne .must come $vith has chosen some of the m&t splendid * of: some essential dignity.,Its other of- examples of Chinesk painting and, they,. f cfeterminative experiencesof the world, are perfectly reprodubed. It ,is’ certain19 ens?, .perhaps. as’ great, is ihat it sari- ~ r not art-yhether acquired through rizes in delighted de%1 our adTan “meditation, or, thrqugh the mastery of o,ne of the loveli&t’ books ever produced ,pande&ng to &ildishness affairs; one, must have arrived a: pro- ,’ ‘by the Boll+geo Foundation, and al- eas&, vul-’ ‘garity; titill~tion,8~mindlessdess., though. $25 m,ay loqk expensive here ), ” ,, ,’ foundly rodted conclusions-wisdom; one must. have’ the automatic facility * at the head of’ a review, with the actual book in hand it looks very cheap in- YET JoEta is not primarily a satire b- ” of ‘the chess prodigy or the master - ‘deed. I would hate’ to ghess what it but a coniedy of ‘the exuberant Rabela’i- pianist. None pf .these qualities are very cost to ,prodGce. Certhinly it &tild not sjan sort: ‘Tt is supeiabundant in verbal ‘apparent at a Carnegie International or’ be sold, ‘at that :price without yubv&tion e&r,& (NabokovJs command Owq’, . ‘, ,& Venice Biennalea, ’ 1’ ’ of the Mellon tiilliqns. American idiom, is a marvC1, greater even than Corirad’s ‘over ‘l&er,ary. English) ,,‘,j:,,... / s,’ ang, it heaps hetails of oui ‘da& life .’ l$ory & &il it,.fofces, our ,tibn’dereven more than our repugnatice. It pfeserves ,’ ,,_ ,, ), ‘,,. ,, ihat; stiange doubl&ess of .co’medy ),LQLITA., By Vladimii Nabokov. The, iFed, the:,prey ‘of admen, but for ihorn w’hich creates in’ma,by a dis&infort they Olympia Press, Two’ volumes, !%O francs iach. he conceives a driving passion. In order resist (Are You So Sure?),, for you to be near Lolita, he marries herwidow- identify with,:‘+%1 familiar with, see ” )’ +qg.i P. Ellioit ed mother. When the mother is ,killed yourself in, a character whom, you ‘at ! ,, by accident, ‘he runs ofs with kis step- the’ sanie time knbw to have performkd, LOLITA was publish’ed in English two ,daughter, living from motel to hotel a!1 abominbble ‘dd’eds. It transmutes, as ,, 4 years ago in Parisi. but it has ndt yet ,over the count?y, ivit$ one, it&e&de o$,‘, ,, private school ‘for her. &thqugh she i 1 come out ‘in this c&try, though ,Na- ‘, bokov7s, P&z (a minor work) has re- earlier tempted him sex&lly and’ ai- in:other i&ortant , %blic Affairs Press bciok: ’ ceritly been issued by Doubleday and 1 though when the, time came ‘, she did the :actual, seducing, yet his sustaindd, , : though the ,next issue of Doubleday”s ’ , Anchor Review will idcl~de a sizeable p?sslon, and pi-odigiqus ’ sexual demands excerpt from Lolita. I suppose our pub; presently repel h$r: He. holds ‘her by ” lishers are afraid that Lo& YouId thre,+-she has “no ,mdney and n6, on& ” bring them,’ lawsuits for” being porno- ‘1:’ ,: grhphic ai;d immqral., who will take, care ‘:df h&r: B&’ he: in ‘turn i6 the atixidus seiyant of her wliims, ‘. A, Critfcal ‘-Apprclisai I’, for :he knows thai ,she, will escape him’ By BERNARD R&N : I ‘A’ d n pornographkrs ~5would, I am sure, (if only by li;la&ri,ng,‘into adoles<e@e): ,,, /’ ,‘,‘S ” _,, find it faiily,, satisfactom foi their’ lewd When. ‘finally hShe’ disappkari, he ‘is ,,’ Introdticti,qn,, by M@x Lirnes$ ) fahtasies. But only fairly satisfactory,’ driven to insanity ‘foi a time’ and “t.0 ‘I I' for,.like Ulysses befbre it, LoEta by high : ‘& is a, book for n&d-centurup Amar ar’t transinittes pt$ns, motiyes and despair; a-few’$ears ,18t2r he finds her ioa in that the’ inktitutiowo& ..,~is ‘actions which in ordinary life are con- married to ,a workingman a,+ pregria&, time, and so,cial tho~ngbt of the America * of the,lSSOs serve as & bnokdrop &&,st whi6h the figure of V&l& and his sidered indecent, into’ objkcts of ,delight, a’most prdinary! girl. Hi discovers from idas ii pro;iected. .compassion , arid contemIjlation. Lolita hei- .that a. bad ~ Playwright and filq “It is not ami eesy gi4BBPng that Veblen gets ,. . ., This book *is a sym- will turn, no reasonable, jitizeri into a writer namtd Quilty had helped her tb pathetic one only in the ~enee that. the pornographer; thl indecency in it, like e&ape and, had th$,n dro&e$ I h,er. 1At leaming of the author’s v&lues is in the sad direotioll &s Veblen’s, But the crime, is always seen with .a clarity the end, ht mui-ders Quilty. the &itical process through, which ,the, : which ‘does not Cncourage the fabricat- ‘Obviously ttie book ioricerns a’ dis- ,Veblen thedries are sifted is it fiercely exacting ones ‘Having worked with &LI: ing of fantasies.” eased man performi@ immoral, acts., Bernard Rosenberg I’ can testify both The novel concerns an Americanized .But the book ,is no more immoral than jdyfnlly and ruefull$ that his is one of the most mordant and brilliant ‘it is pornographic. Fdr we know from the minds among the younger social srien- h .Europenn of middie years whose tr’&e 1 tistn, and. that be delights in carving foreword, that .the narrator is a criminal into’ lit% pieces tbe sacred cows of love is onI+ foi’ “nymphets,“’ certain the aaademib world. ,,In that sense he ‘:’ girls between nihe and fourteen. :He and mentally ,abnormal, and this knowl- writes in the’ sl%rlt in which, Veblen edge femplrs qur reaction to evkrything, wrote. . . ‘1 / ” falls” in love with. one named Lolita, a --Max Lerner girl whom we discover to be an’, al+ he says of himself: Most of ,,gll,” bsth ,Available at $2.50 ,a copy Nabokov ’ and, the imaginary narrator, ,from I’eading bookstores or from the’ putqlisher. r ,” gether unexceptional child of the times, ill-parented, traditioni&, Hol&?,od- Humbert Humbert, are wholly unam- ‘. biguous about the nioralitjr of the acts L *&,01&a has been reviewed, by the and motives. ,f + )’ U.S. Customs and has,, been ,found ad- misbible to this cohntry. ‘I lo?ed yoil. I Gas ,a’ ‘pdntapod monster, but I loved YOU’.’ I was, pljBw AFFAIRS PRESS, ’ 419 New Jersey Ave. Washington. 3,, 8. C.

august 18, 1958

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