Wikipedia:
"Lolita is a 1955 novel written by Russian American novelist
Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the
protagonist and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor under
the pseudonym Humbert Humbert, is obsessed with a 12-year-old girl, Dolores
Haze, with whom he becomes sexually involved after he becomes her stepfather.
"Lolita" is his private nickname for Dolores...."
Susie Neilson, Nautilus, May 2016:
“....If we look at the three novels—Pnin, Lolita, and Pale Fire—after he was doing his dissections, we see that he’s created a nest of inner structures that are much more intricate than in his previous novels, and hidden in the same way that a butterfly’s genitalia are hidden. Butterfly genitalia are the primary means of classifying distinct species, which is why Nabokov spent so much time examining them. So I think he was in some ways trying to mimic nature, and the fine mechanical perfection he found in butterflies, by crafting that very detailed precision into his works....”
“....If we look at the three novels—Pnin, Lolita, and Pale Fire—after he was doing his dissections, we see that he’s created a nest of inner structures that are much more intricate than in his previous novels, and hidden in the same way that a butterfly’s genitalia are hidden. Butterfly genitalia are the primary means of classifying distinct species, which is why Nabokov spent so much time examining them. So I think he was in some ways trying to mimic nature, and the fine mechanical perfection he found in butterflies, by crafting that very detailed precision into his works....”
“Butterflies on your own time, Brady! We’ve got a porn empire to run.”
Artist: Michael Crawford, The New Yorker, August 2016