Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0004505, Mon, 18 Oct 1999 19:00:51 -0700

Subject
Re: QUERY: Hairy Hermaphrodite in Lolita? (fwd)
Date
Body


"Finally, I did achieve an hour's slumber--from which I was aroused by
gratuitous and horribly exhausting congress with a small hairy
hermaphrodite, a total stranger."

What's the literal meaning of this sentence?


A bad dream. Why not keep it simple? Yet when Humbert adds, as if in
exculpation, "a total stranger" ... why, that's funny.

Jeff Farmer