“The Real Lolita is a tour de force of literary detective work. Not only does it shed new light on the terrifying true saga that influenced Nabokov’s masterpiece, it restores the forgotten victim to our consciousness.” —David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon
Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita is one of the most beloved and notorious novels of all time. And yet, very few of its readers know that the subject of the novel was inspired by a real-life case: the 1948 abduction of eleven-year-old Sally Horner.
Weaving together suspenseful crime narrative, cultural and social history, and literary investigation, The Real Lolita tells Sally Horner’s full story for the very first time. Drawing upon extensive investigations, legal documents, public records, and interviews with remaining relatives, Sarah Weinman uncovers how much Nabokov knew of the Sally Horner case and the efforts he took to disguise that knowledge during the process of writing and publishing Lolita.
Sally Horner’s story echoes the stories of countless girls and women who never had the chance to speak for themselves. By diving deeper in the publication history of Lolita and restoring Sally to her rightful place in the lore of the novel’s creation, The Real Lolita casts a new light on the dark inspiration for a modern classic.
The Real Lolita
By sarahweinman
Captivating, heart-rending… offers both nuanced and compassionate true-crime reportage and revelatory cultural and literary history. It will, quite simply, change the way you think about Lolita and ‘Lolitas’ forever.
The Real Lolita is the corrective we never knew we needed, a lively, engrossing work of scholarship that does not diminish Nabokov, but gently insists that we not indulge his trickster ways. Sally Horner matters and, thanks to Sarah Weinman, she and Dolores Haze will be forever linked. Groundbreaking work, a new genre unto itself.
The Real Lolita puts Nabokov’s Lolita into a newly relevant and important context and raises interesting questions about how books “change” over time. Read my full review: https://susanalbert.com/bookscapes-the-real-lolita/
The Real Lolita is a tour de force of literary detective work. Not only does it shed new light on the terrifying true saga that influenced Nabokov’s masterpiece, it restores the forgotten victim to our consciousness.
I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed by this. Weinman seems bent on setting Nabokov up as some sort of villain for having gotten some inspiration out of this tragic real-life situation, when even she herself admits that he had been working on the novel for several years before Sally was abducted, as well as building up to it for many more years prior in several of his earlier works. I couldn’t say what she possibly has against him, but she tries repeatedly to portray him in the worst possible light. All she succeeds in doing, is irking me with her behavior, not his. Basically, she seems to believe that because he did not shout from the rooftops I have borrowed pieces of little Sally Horner’s terrible ordeal!! that he has somehow stolen her story and, I don’t even know what. Except, while it’s clear he did use parts of it for inspiration, what makes Lolita, Lolita, is the fact that he was a brilliant writer and he gave complete life to Humbert and his story. Had he merely written some genre-fic thriller about a pedophile kidnapping, it would be an incredibly different book and nothing like his masterpiece. So, yeah, her attitude was incredibly frustrating and really just tainted her book for me. Then, there’s also the fact that it feels like there wasn’t enough substance for a whole book (this originally started as an article that was then expanded on) and so she tried to pad it out with extraneous info that has no bearing on anything. History of the town itself, some random mass shooting that happened there, light backstories on some lawyers and detectives working the case… it just really doesn’t come together properly; she’d have been better off making a somewhat shorter book sticking to the relevant info. By the way, I think I feel most comfortable classing this as true-crime, because that’s what the bulk of it, in fact, is; and while I like true-crime books that is not really what I was expecting given the title/subtitle of the book. Basically the title comes off feeling rather like clickbait.
On the positive side, the writing itself was fine, and I am glad to have learned about Sally’s awful ordeal and tragically short life, plus a small bit about Nabokov’s penning of the Lolita.
In all, this is not a book I’d really suggest anyone go read, unless they are a die-hard fan and haven’t discovered this history elsewhere.
Sarah Weinman delivers a thoroughly riveting and heartbreaking narrative that weaves the very best of true crime writing with the darker elements of literary inspiration.
I didn’t know the history of the story of Lolita;I thought it was fictional. This was a very interesting, but sad story.
it was interesting enough but more of a treatise than a novel…a researcher might find it interesting– ultimately I did not.
From the super talented Sarah Weinman. Picked it up and could not put it down. Absolutely riveting.
Slow and boring.
Compassionate and necessary, Sarah Weinman’s The Real Lolita is more than a true-crime achievement. It’s a literary rescue mission, bringing to life the tragic real-life case that forms the dark heart of Nabokov’s classic. You’ll never read Lolita the same way again.