ÒLight of My LifeÓ Love, Time and Memory in Nabokov’s Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov, one of the 20th century’s greatest novelists, is particularly remembered for his masterpiece Lolita. The present work examines the enduring themes of Lolita and places the novel in its biographical, social, cultural and historical contexts. Of particular interest are questions of love in all of its manifestations, the central problem of time in the book, and memory as it is explored in fictional memoir or, in this case, the central protagonist’s “confession.”