Humbert Humbert

Grew up… a cosmopolitan sophisticate in England. Always a man of taste and distinction, Humbert suffered heartbreak at an early age with the death of his childhood sweetheart, Annabel Leigh – an event that shaped the young Humbert into the man he has become.

Living… far from home, in crude New Hampshire, USA. Currently lodging with Charlotte Haze and her daughter, 12-year-old Dolores “Lolita” Haze. While he disdains Charlotte's lack of taste, Humbert stays with her in order to be close to her daughter, with whom he develops an increasingly disturbing obsession.

Profession… professor of French literature and aspiring poet. Because of his education and profession, Humbert sees himself as a European intellectual living in a cultureless American wasteland. Although the refined Humbert puts on a charming façade, he still finds that he’s unable to resist his most basic animal instincts.

Interests… poetry, high culture, and 'nymphets,' Humbert's term for the pre-adolescent girls he is attracted to. At the moment, the object of Humbert's sexual obsession is Lolita, and he has constructed his life around the young girl.

Relationship Status… married to Charlotte Haze, but far more interested in her young daughter. In Lolita, Humbert sees the image of Annabel Leigh that he has been groping for amongst his nymphets. As he exclaims upon seeing her, "this nouvelle, this Lolita, my Lolita, was to eclipse completely her prototype."

Challenge… wooing Lolita and keeping their affair a secret from the world. Word of an illicit sexual relationship with a young girl could ruin Humbert’s carefully built reputation, and so he has to find a way of keeping his attraction a secret from respectable society.

Personality… sophisticated, pompous, and deeply narcissistic. Although the cultured Humbert shows constant disdain for U.S. culture, he ironically ends up falling in love with the embodiment of insipid American glamour: the flirtatious, underage Lolita.