To understand a book you must read from cover to cover said to me a professor once, and so I did when I opened Lolita’s front cover.  Foreword is the introduction with a short explanation of the who and what of the story.  This gives the reader a better sense of what the show is going to present next.  John Ray Jr, PH.D is a fictional character who is in charge of editing a manuscript whose author died in jail before his trial. In his will he asked for his lawyer to make possible the publication of “Lolita or the confession of a White Widowed Male” (P3) only after his death.  John admits that there is not much change to be made and that the text should be left untouched to maintain the author’s originality. John does not say why the author was in jail, but tells that “Humbert” (P3) was a pedophile.  Even though his writing is horrific John says that it is beautiful and persuasive and anticipates that the script will become popular and will give parents advice on how to be more vigilant about the future of their children.
The name Lolita is the first word of this story which represents something important to the author in this case Humbert, the narrator and main character plays around with her name. He admits that Lolita was not his first pedophilic experience and that he was a murderer. He describes his childhood as being healthy and happy and about his European background. His family appeared to be of means, his father is absent most of the time and there is not much description about his mother only that she died in an accident “picnic, lightning”(#2) this expression represent how distant he was from his mother, and also how he dislike the figure of an adult female. His aunt Sybil from the mother side of the family is the one who cares for him after her sister passed. He likes her despite her tough attitude and rules. This is another important fact about his youth. The presence of female figure are predominant more than the male figure for instances this could also be another reason of his behavior later on in the story.
Annabela Leigh a twelve-year-old girl appeared in the story on the summer of 1923. Humbert and Annabel were only friends at first then their friendship turned into juvenile love. Their adventures to have sex are numerous, but they never consume their love. Sadly few months later she died of typhus. He is traumatized after this event and this leads to a severe changes in his behavior towards his adulthood. He admits that “Lolita began with Annabel” (#4). Annabel memories follow him for more than twenty years later until he finally let go of her when he met Lolita.
Humbert talks about adult female admirers, but he dislike most of them. He questions society and in an indirect way makes the reader also question the laws and traditions when he believes that it is biased that an adult man can love a girl of seventeen but not one of twelve. This ideas are so bizarre and typically of a person with mental problem. A nymphet is how he calls a girl between the ages of nine and fourteen, he describes them as not necessarily beautiful but with a essential sexually quality.
He marries Valeria because she acts like a child and his obsession with nymphets worries him and he wants to live as a normal man. His marriage fails, again because his true nature forced him to dislike adult women, and also Valeria’s affair with the taxi driver. This situation showed some of Humbert hidden characteristics. Mental hospital are normal places according to his description, he goes in and out figuring that his illness is cure. After some time he finally arrives in the States to face again his twisted sad reality.
