Poet and pervert, Humbert Humbert becomes obsessed by twelve-year-old Lolita and seecs to possess her, first carnslly and then artistically, out of love, `to fix once for all the perilous magic of nymphets`. This seduction is one of many dimensions in Nabocov`s dizzying masterpiece, which is suffused with a savage humour and rich, elaborate verbal textures.