Lolita

“I grew, a happy, healthy child in a bright world of illustrated books, clean sand, orange trees, friendly dogs, sea vistas and smiling faces.”

The beginning of this passage lists, in series style, numerous contributing factors to the narrator’s happy childhood. Smiling faces is stated last (after the dogs) possibly making it the least apparent aspect in his youth. Everything mentioned is somewhat superficial. Smiling faces are not necessarily equivocal to loving caregivers.

“Around me the splendid Hotel Mirana revolved as a kind of private universe, a whitewashed cosmos within the blue greater one that blazed outside.”

This sentence begins with a prepositional phrase (at least I think it does) similar to pattern 14. Followed by two metaphors acting as appositives. The narrator’s grandiose comparison of the hotel to the cosmos, as well as his declaration of it revolving around him (instead of him being a part of it) effectively distinguishes it as external and inaccessible. This secluded place was his entire world yet, despite its splendor it did not exceed his vision of the world beyond it.

“Ruined Russian princesses who could not pay my father, bought me expensive bonbons.”

This sentence begins with a past participle making it an introductory particle sentence (pattern 12).

“He, mon cher petit papa, took me out boating and biking, taught me to swim and dive and water-ski, read to me Don Quixote and Les Misérables, and I adored and respected him and felt glad for him whenever I overheard the servants discuss his various lady-friends, beautiful and kind beings who made much of me and cooed and shed precious tears over my cheerful motherlessness.”

This sentence begins with an appositive after the subject (pattern 7a). Following this is at least one long series. This sentence is very difficult to analyze. Aside from its complicated and confusing structure, it depicts an active, loving and deeply appreciated father. While, simultaneously portraying a frequently abandoned son. Also present, is the notion that instead of the father maintaining a committed relationship, he carries out numerous affairs. Despite these women’s attempts to fawn over their lover’s son, none of them are in a position to fulfill the role of mother. While the context asserts the boy’s expression of respect and affection, the overall structure conveys something quite different. Due to its lengthy and compounded nature, the sentence implicitly speaks of an isolated boy aware of his father’s frequent absences as well as his lack of a real mother. It is in the combination of ideas (reverence and appreciation, as well as promiscuity and motherlessness) that the real sentiment is asserted. Further, referring to his father as “mon cher petit papa” is somewhat condescending and due to its linguistic divergence it stands as separate. Both of these details contribute to the initial sense that the father is a fairly detached figure.

Overall, reference to the father seems to serve as an explanation for the narrator’s tendencies with women, since that is the main theme within Lolita. Throughout the passage, Nabokov uses structure to convey a contradictory truth to the messages presented by the context.

I had a difficult time discerning which of Sullivan's sentence styles were used in the passage. It is easier to understand them than to identify them.