Dolores Haze

Beneath Humbert's ornate narration, the actual Dolores Haze emerges in fragments — a normal American girl who likes comic books, movie stars, and tennis. She has a vulgar sense of humor and ordinary teenage interests that Humbert disdains but cannot fully suppress.

Strip away the poetry and what remains is a kidnapped child, transported across state lines by the man who exploited her mother's accidental death, counting her money in hopes of escape. The gap between what Humbert describes and what actually happens is the novel's moral engine.