My Annotations for page 207

Nabokov had a privileged childhood within Russian aristocracy and wrote his early works in Russian. His skilled with language also included French. He often included French words, phrases and even sentences in Lolita. The annotator, Alfred Appel, translates the French for the reader. In the era Nabokov was born and lived in, French was the language of the aristocracy throughout Europe, a long tradition that continues to the present in the international world of the United Nation, where French is one of the primary languages spoken and required for employment in the international arena.


On page 207, Humbert comments on the fact that Lolita only uses French when she is a "very good little girl". Nabokov wrote in French four times on page 207 alone.


Humbert is quite deftly manipulated and 'played' by Lolita. She knows exactly how to get Humbert to agree to do what she wants but playing the sexual siren she is blossoming into as she gets older. This page demonstrates just how blinded Humbert is by his obsession. This section of the novel begs the question, who is the monster at this point in the story? In this section of the novel Lo is the manipulative seducer, showing she is not as young and naive as Numbert believes she is.