''Vladimir Nabokov's Comic Quest for Reality' - Nottingham eTheses

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and pitiful at the same time. And all the time the
contradictory elements evoke contradictory and even
incompatible emotions and reactions in the reader.
The relationship is indeed, as Humbert says, grotesque.
The basic situation of Lolita is anticipated in the
47
much earlier Laughter in the Dark. Like the later
novel it deals with the infatuation of a mature man
with a much younger girl: Margot is sixteen. Albinus'
idolatry of her is as complete as Humbert's of Lolita.
He abandons his family to live with her and becomes
indirectly responsible for the death of his child.
The basic difference between the two novels is aptly
described in Nabokov's own statement that "Actually,
of course, Margot was a common young whore, not an
unfortunate little Lolita. "48
Margot's, as Lolitas, youth and childishness are
often mentioned: her "girlish figure"(LD,,. 38) and "childish"
face"(LD, 115) her childish manners and handwriting
(LD, 39-40), and "You're a child yourself" (LD, 116) Albinns
says to her. However, in her, this childishness is
coupled with gross materialism and great cunning. Hers
is only the appearance of a child and schoolgirl; she
has none of Lolita's genuine childish nature, and
certainly none of. her helplessness.
Enamoured by material possessions, it does not mat-
ter to her how she comes by them, so that, after she
has satisfied herself by inspecting his flat that
Albinus is really wealthy, she is content to give in
to his wishes although she does not love him. And she
quickly falls in love with the life Albinus offers