Chronology of Lolita
CHRONOLOGY OF LOLITA
This chronology is based on information gathered from the text of Nabokov’s Lolita as well as from the chronological reconstructions prepared by Carl Proffer in his Keys to Lolita and Dieter Zimmer’s online chronology at
1910 Humbert Humbert born in Paris, France (9) 1911 Clare Quilty born in Ocean City, Maryland (31) 1913 Humbert’s mother dies from a lightning strike (10) 1923 Summer: Humbert and Annabel Leigh have romance (11) Autumn: Humbert attends lycée in Lyon (11) December (?): Annabel dies in Corfu (13) 1934 Charlotte Becker and Harold E. Haze honeymoon in Veracruz, Mexico; Dolores Haze conceived on this trip (57, 100) 1935 January 1: Dolores Haze born in Pisky, a town in the Midwest (65, 46) April: Humbert has brief relationship with Monique, a Parisian prostitute (23) Humbert marries Valeria Zborovski (25, 30) 1937 Dolly’s brother born (68) 1939 Dolly’s brother dies (68) Humbert receives inheritance from relative in America (27) Valeria discloses to Humbert that she is having an affair; divorce proceedings ensue (27, 32)
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1940 Winter: Humbert spends winter in Portugal (32) Spring: Humbert arrives in United States and takes up job devising and editing perfume ads (32) Over next two years Humbert writes comparative history of French literature for English-speaking students (32) 1943–44 (?) Humbert spends more than a year in a sanatarium due to psychological problems (33) 1944 Summer: Dolly under supervision of Miss Phalen (56) 1945 The Haze family moves from Pisky to Ramsdale, which is located in New England (46, 74, 35) 1945 (?) Valeria dies in childbirth 1946 (?) Humbert has “another bout of insanity” and is institutiona lized (34) 1947 May: Humbert moves into Haze household in Ramsdale (40–41) June 5 (Thursday): First diary entry provided by Humbert (41) June 22 (Sunday): Humbert’s encounter with Dolly on living room couch (57) June 26 (Thursday): Charlotte drives Dolly to Camp Q (65) Late June or early July: Humbert marries Charlotte (74–75) July 29 (Tuesday): Charlotte’s and Humbert’s last swim at Hour- glass Lake (82) August 5 (Tuesday): Charlotte receives letter from the second Miss Phalen “exactly a week after our last swim” (93) August 6 (Wednesday): Humbert goes to doctor to get a pre- scription for sleeping pills (94); Charlotte reads his diary; Charlotte is hit by a car and dies. August 13 (Wednesday): Humbert leaves Ramsdale (105–6), spends night in Parkington (109) August 14 (Thursday): Humbert drives from Parkington to Camp Q to pick up Dolly. They drive on to Briceland and the Enchanted Hunters Hotel (112, 115) August 15 (Friday): Humbert and Dolly leave Briceland and go to Lepingville (139, 141) August 1947– Humbert and Dolly travel across the United States (154). August 1948 1948 August: Humbert and Dolly arrive in Beardsley and take up residence at 14 Thayer Street (176) December: Humbert meets with Miss Pratt to discuss Dolly’s conduct (193)
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1949 January 1: Humbert buys Dolly a new bicycle (199) May: Dolly participates in a “very special rehearsal” of the school play (202) May 27 (Friday): Dolly’s piano teacher mentions in phone con- versation with Humbert that Dolly has missed two lessons (202); Humbert and Dolly fight, Dolly escapes, and then she decides to abandon the play and start a new road trip (207) May 29 (Sunday): Humber and Dolly leave Beardsley (208) Early June: Humbert and Dolly stay at the Chestnut Court in Kas- beam, where she surreptitiously meets with Quilty (212–15) Mid-June: Humbert and Dolly arrive in Wace, where they attend Clare Quilty and Vivian Darkbloom’s play (220) Late June: Dolly plays tennis at Champion Hotel in Colorado (233), and frolics by the pool under that watchful gaze of Clare Quilty (237) June 27 (Monday): Humbert and Dolly arrive in Elphinstone at the Silver Spur Court (238). Dolly is ill and is taken to the local hospital (240) June 28 (Tuesday): Humbert attempts an early morning visit to the hospital (242) July 2 (Saturday): Humbert visits Dolly in the hospital for the last time and spies suspicious envelope (242) July 3 (Sunday): Humbert is sick, but he sends Dolly’s two bags to the hospital (244) July 4 (Monday): Still sick, Humbert hears “some great national celebration in town” (245); Dolly leaves hospital (246) July 5 (Tuesday): Humbert telephones hospital and learns that Dolly had left the day before (246); Humbert leaves Elphinstone July 5–November 18: Humbert searches for Dolly and her new companion (248) November 18: Humbert arrives in Beardsley for a few days (248, 252) 1950 January 1: Humbert sends a collection of Dolly’s belongings to a home for orphaned girls in Canada (255) Winter-Spring: Humbert stays in a Quebec sanatorium (255) May: Humbert picks up Rita (258) and spends two years with her (259) 1951 September: Humbert takes up position at Cantrip College until June 1952 (260) 1952 June: Humbert gets Rita out of jail and returns to New York City with her by way of Briceland (261) September 18 (Thursday): Dolly writes Humbert from Coalmont (267)
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1952 September 22 (Monday): Humbert receives Dolly’s letter and leaves New York for Coalmont (267) September 23 (Tuesday): Humbert arrives at Schiller home on Hunter Road, Coalmont (268–69); at around 4:00 PM, he departs for Ramsdale (281) September 24 (Wednesday): Humbert arrives in Ramsdale at around noon (287); he learns Clare Quilty’s address from Quilty’s uncle Ivor (291); and he drives from Ramsdale to Parkington (292) September 25 (Thursday): After spending the night at Insomnia Lodge, Humbert goes to kill Quilty at Quilty’s house on Grimm Road (293); after the murder, Humbert is arrested by police (307) November 16 (Sunday): Humbert dies of coronary thrombosis (3) December 25 (Thursday): Dolly Schiller dies in childbirth in Gray Star (4) 1955 August 5: John Ray, Jr. finishes his foreword to Humbert’s memoir (6)
xviii Chronology of Lolita A Reader’s Guide to Nabokov’s “Lolita”
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