God, what an effectively horrifying little paragraph. Imagine not knowing what Lolita is about and encountering that. “Light of my life, fire of my loins,” oh okay so he’s describing his girlfriend or wife, then the “four feet ten in one sock” starts to set off warning bells, and then “at school” hits and those bells are deafeningly loud, and then he reminds you he’s talking about this individual, this Lolita “in my arms…” and it’s ABORT ABORT OH NO.

I didn’t feel the need to read that book more than once but damn, he can write. That “one sock” detail is such tragically childish imagery.