Vladimir Nabokov · 1955 · road

Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel, one of the most controversial and dazzlingly written books in English, narrated by Humbert Humbert, a literate predator who abducts and abuses a twelve-year-old girl and carries her on a vast road trip across postwar America. Nabokov drew the route from motel guides and tourist brochures, turning the great American road journey into something claustrophobic and damning. A masterpiece of unreliable narration that never lets its monster off the hook. The itinerary is deliberately impressionistic.

1. 1
   Ramsdale

   In a New England town, Humbert Humbert, a charming and monstrous European, fixes on twelve-year-old Dolores Haze, marries her mother to be near her, and after the mother dies takes the orphaned girl captive on the road.

2. 2
   Great Plains

   The first long flight across America, a blur of highways, motels and roadside attractions, Dolores his prisoner behind the performance of a family holiday.

3. 3
   Elphinstone

   In the mountain town of Elphinstone, on a second crossing, Dolores at last escapes him, slipping away with another, equally sinister man.

4. 4
   California

   Humbert searches the country for her in vain, retracing their wanderings through a vast, indifferent America.

5. 5
   Pavor Manor

   Years later, learning the truth at last, he drives back East to a decaying mansion and a final, futile act of murder.