Lolita A comparison of the novel versus the film
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Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita, written in 1955, is about a middle-aged European man, Humbert Humbert, and his unusual sexual attraction and obsession for a pre-pubescent, "nymphet" girl, Lolita. In order to get close to Lolita, he marries her mother who is also his landlady. However, Humbert Humbert is not the only deceiving character. Lolita is hiding an affair with the middle-aged playwright, Clare Quilty. Stanley Kubrick's film version of Lolita, released in 1962, strays quite a bit from the novel. Rather than creating a film overflowing in sexuality and pedophilia subject matter, its content was mostly suggestive, with numerous double entendres and metaphoric sexual situations.
One major difference in Kubrick's movie version is the age of Lolita, which was raised from 12 years old in the novel, to approximately 14 years old, or the age of a typical high-school student. Sue Lyons, the actress who played the role of Lolita in the film was much more seductive and sexy than the Lolita described in the book. Kubrick's Lolita had already hit puberty and acted very confident and mature. I think Kubrick decided to increase the age of Lolita's character for the sake of being less offensive to audiences...