Part 1, Chapters 1-6 Summary

Humbert Humbert (H.H.) muses about Lolita. H.H. is born in 1910 in Paris. His father owns a luxury hotel and his mom dies when he is three. His maternal aunt, Sybil, raises him. H.H. is spoiled, makes excellent marks, and has many friends. Around age thirteen, La Beauté Humaine provides his only knowledge of sex. In 1923, he goes to a lycée in Lyon. H.H. falls in love with Annabel Leigh and they experiment sexually, but never find the privacy to have full intercourse. She dies four months after their last attempt at sexual involvement. H.H. never gets over Annabel's death and he thinks that that may be the cause of his involvement with Lolita.

H.H.'s youth flies by. He uses prostitutes for sex, consorts with the intelligentsia of his day, writes a...