The Real Lolita

The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World
by Sarah Weinman
Pages: 320
Published by Ecco
Publication Date September 11th 2018
Goodreads

A gripping true-crime investigation of the 1948 abduction of Sally Horner and how it inspired Vladimir Nabokov’s classic novel, Lolita

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.

Quick Impressions

Had I done to Dolly, perhaps, what Frank Lasalle, a fifty-year-old mechanic, had done to eleven-year-old Sally Horner in 1948?

The Real Lolita is eye-opening and a fascinating true crime novel.  While the novel does switch between Nabokov writing the book and the horror of Sally Horner “the real Lolita” I felt that the author’s time was better spent on the latter.  However, as interesting as the story was, there wasn’t a great deal of concrete writings during Sally’s years in captivity so there was a bit of speculation in regard to their everyday life and thus made the book feel padded. Although, this is easy to overlook in the big scheme of things as overall the novel pulls you in with the atrocities that occurred to Sally Horner and the excellent detective work in Sarah Weinman’s storytelling. The Real Lolita will break your heart and have you reaching for Lolita but this time with Sally Horner in mind.

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