Today’s post is on The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally
Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World by Sarah Weinman. It is 306
including notes and is published by Harper Collins. The cover is red with a
picture of Sally Horner on it and butterflies in white around the right
edge. The intended reader is someone who
is interested in true crime, the making of Lolita and Nabokov. There is some
foul language, discussing of sex, sexuality, and rape, and some violence in
this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the dust jacket- 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 investigations, 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 woman who never had the chance to speak for themselves. By diving deeper into the publication history of Lolita and restoring Sally to her rightful place in the lore of the novel’s creation, Sarah Weinman’s thrilling, heartbreaking The Real Lolita casts a new light on the dark inspiration for a modern classic.
Weaving together suspenseful crime narrative, cultural and social history, and literary investigations, 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 woman who never had the chance to speak for themselves. By diving deeper into the publication history of Lolita and restoring Sally to her rightful place in the lore of the novel’s creation, Sarah Weinman’s thrilling, heartbreaking The Real Lolita casts a new light on the dark inspiration for a modern classic.
Review- An interesting investigation a forgotten crime and
the novel that it inspired. Weinman works her way through Nabokov’s papers and
the reports from police officers to uncover the truth about Sally Horner and
Lolita. She includes many pages of notes to follow if you want to see
everything for yourself. The story is told in alternating chapters one on Sally
and where she is, the next on Nabokov and what he is working on it. Wienman
gives more than just the plain story about what happened, she also gives the
reader insight into the world that both Sally and Nabokov lived in with family
backgrounds included. There is never a question about how horrible the
experiences that Sally Horner survived and that Dolores Haze was a victim of a
monster too. Weinman is a good writer, giving the reader the truth about what
happened without disgusting the reader with all the details. The reader knows
what happened to Sally Horner but never in detail or disrespectfully. If you
are a true crime fan, then I recommend this book.
I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for
my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.
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