Lust

Lust, defined as overwhelming, unrestrained craving, controls three main characters in Vladimir Nabokov's Laughter in the Dark. The sexual aspect is strongest, creating a classic triangle among middle-aged Albert Albinus, young Margot Peters, and Axel Rex (a.k.a. Miller), although the last is too cynical to identify fully with any passion or emotion.

Albert seems not to have had too powerful a libido before seeing beautiful Margot while she is working as an usher in a movie theater. In keeping with his art training, he pictures her as sharply-lit Old Masters painting and at first tries to sublimate his feelings. He marries Elisabeth for no discernible reason after a string of unsuccessful affairs; as an adolescent , lust leads him to climb out of his bedroom window and into the adjoining window of a maid, who turns out to be previously taken. During Elisabeth's three-week confinement before giving...