{"id":1533,"date":"2026-04-02T13:27:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T20:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/?p=1533"},"modified":"2026-04-03T10:17:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T17:17:39","slug":"on-lolita-the-monk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/?p=1533","title":{"rendered":"On Lolita &#038; The Monk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">Separated by more than a century Vladimir Nabokov\u2019s <i>Lolita<\/i> (1955) and Matthew Lewis\u2019s <i>The Monk<\/i> (1796) belong to very different literary traditions\u2014modern prose versus Gothic sensationalism\u2014yet both are about the human heart, albeit deviant and troubled hearts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">According to Dante the opposite of moderation is incontinence. The protagonists of the novels, Ambrosio and Humbert are incontinent, incapable of controlling their urges. That\u2019s their nature. Sin is in their DNA. While Ambrosio, a revered monk, succumbs to lust and deception in a slow transformative process, Humbert Humbert of Lolita is an unapologetic sinner. Self-righteous and arrogant, Nabokov\u2019s protagonist pursues an illicit affair with a twelve-year-old. In both cases, desire is ultimately a destabilizing and eroding force but it also seems inevitable. Both works explore taboo sexuality and its \u2018destructive&#8217; consequences. In Lolita Nabokov turns the novel into a rhetorical performance in which Humbert attempts to seduce not only Lolita but also the reader, and we let him, as he keeps us dangling between aesthetic pleasure and moral revulsion.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Lewis\u2019s apparent message\u2014like Nabokov\u2019s\u2014that Ambrosio\u2019s downfall is inevitable and should be, therefore, avoided, is a facade. You see, you and I are seduced by Ambrosio\u2019s weaknesses, as we are with Humbert\u2019s humanity. We <i>feel<\/i> their passions. We embrace their weaknesses\u2014to our chagrin\u2014because we understand them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ambrosio and Humbert are incontinent. Yes. But they\u2019re also human. And they are not so different from us. Any one of us, given the right circumstances, may dance with the devil, or at least think about it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u2014 Photo. Fuji XH2. Fujifilm 35mm f1.4<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1535\" src=\"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7357-230x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"230\" height=\"300\" data-kale-share-title=\"On Lolita &amp; The Monk\" data-kale-share-url=\"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/?p=1533\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7357-230x300.jpeg 230w, https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7357-786x1024.jpeg 786w, https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7357-768x1000.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7357-1180x1536.jpeg 1180w, https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7357-1573x2048.jpeg 1573w, https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7357-scaled.jpeg 1966w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 230px) 100vw, 230px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Separated by more than a century Vladimir Nabokov\u2019s Lolita (1955) and Matthew Lewis\u2019s The Monk (1796) belong to very different literary traditions\u2014modern prose versus Gothic sensationalism\u2014yet both are about the human heart, albeit deviant and troubled hearts. According to Dante the opposite of moderation is&nbsp;<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/?p=1533\">&hellip;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1533"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1537,"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533\/revisions\/1537"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alessandrob.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}