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Imagery
Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Foreword
Explanation and Analysis—The Foreword:
Lolita begins with a “foreword” written by Dr. John Ray Jr., the (fictional) editor of a manuscript written by the late Humbert Humbert while imprisoned for child sexual abuse and for murder. The foreword, which is in fact part of the fiction of the novel, serves as a frame story that provides context for Humbert’s narration and, in turn, infuses the narrative with dramatic irony. John Ray begins:
“Lolita, or the Confession of a White Widowed Male,” such were the two titles under which the writer of the present note received the strange pages it preambulates. “Humbert Humbert,” their author, had died in legal captivity, of coronary thrombosis, on November 16, 1952, a few days before his trial was scheduled to start. His lawyer, my good friend and relation, Clarence Choate Clark, Esq. [...] in asking me to edit the manuscript, based his request on a clause in his client’s will which empowered my eminent cousin to use his discretion in all matters pertaining to the preparation of “Lolita” for print.
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