Taboo

Sitting in jail awaiting trial for murder and rape, Humbert Humbert (H.H.) sees his relations towards his stepdaughter Lolita as pathetic. She alone attaches the proper name to his lust: incest. From adolescence, H.H. realizes that "nymphets" hold fantastic power over men ten to forty (and up to ninety) years older than they. For him, the catalyst is losing girlfriend Annabel before they consummate their relationship. He frequents prostitutes during his twenties and thirties, feeling shame and terror and fearing insanity looking at girls like Annabel, and marries "fluffy and frolicsome" Valeria, hoping that marriage will keep him safe. H.H. tries to be civilized and good, respecting the purity, vulnerability, and innocence of children, but his heart beats seeing a "demon child". He pretends to read on park benches to watch nymphets play, his scholarly book serving as a fig leaf. H.H. often wonders...