I'll add a few lines about Poe's Annabel Lee poem.

It prefaces the novel with what seems to be a reference to purity.
Also, it makes Humbert sound almost respectable for a while: after all, it's a beautiful poem, I learnt it in high school, there can't be anything wrong with it.
It introduces the theme of child and bride (not in the same line in the poem).
Humbert calls both Annabel and Lolita his "bride", and here he changes the meaning of the word to suit his fancy.

I am still waiting on my copy. Getting antsy for it.

I'll write a quotation from Nabokov's interview in the youtube video mentioned above.
Nabokov refers to a story he read in a newspaper:

The story of an ape, given a piece of charcoal.
The first thing he sketched was the bars of his own cage.
(...) My baboon, Humbert humbert, is drawing exactly that. He is drawing and shading and erasing and redrawing the bars of his cage, the bars between him and, as he calls it "the human herd".

Have you got any comments to write about this quote as you read Lolita?

First let me say, I finally got my copy and started reading it right away.

Second, on the quote. I would have to agree. As I said before it is like he is trying to justify his actions. But when in reality, we are beginning to see him (well, me anyway) as a sad, sad man.

Case in point, Humbert was talking about his nymphets. Then he explains their age range which is 9-14. He says the loves this age because they are developing that look, that certain power that if developed right can rule the world. But they can not mature over 14. Then he goes on to justify that so many writers and cultures in history have proven him right. The problem is that in history they did that (such as marrying them off at 12, selling to harems, or arranging marriages at birth) because the human life expectancy was thirty to forty years old.

Well, I am still very intrigued by this book because I am wondering just how far he is willing to go with this infatuation.

The one thing that keeps coming back to me is this question. Who has the control?

The foreword to Lolita.

I think it is worth discussing.
This is from one of the sites i referred to above:

Lolita begins with an earnest foreword, purportedly written by one John Ray, Jr., Ph.D., author of Do the Senses Make Sense? (whose initials-- "J.R., Jr."-- echo as suspiciously as "Humbert Humbert"). Why might Nabokov have chosen to frame his novel in this fashion? What is the effect of knowing that the narrative's three main characters are already dead--and, in a sense, nonexistent, since their names have been changed?

Having the foreword written by a fictitious writer is intriguing.
John Ray prefaces a books supposedly written by Humbert in prison while awaiting his trial-- which, we learn, never took place, since H H "died in legal captivity, of coronory thrombosis, in 1952, a few days before his trial was scheduled to start."

We are told about the strange name, Humbert Humbert: "This remarkable memoir is presented intact. Its author's bizarre cognomen (last name) is his own invention;"

"I have no intention to glorify H.H. No doubt, he is horrible, he is abject, a moral leprosy, a mixture of ferocity and jocularity that betrays supreme misery perhaps, but is not conductive to attractiveness. He is ponderously capricious. Many of his casual opinions on the people and the scenery of this country are ludicrous. A desperate honesty that throbs through his confession does not absolve him from sins of diabolical cunning. He is abnormal. He is not a gentleman."

I think the author is trying to protect himself from accusations from his future readers.

So, for the moment, I have two questions:

1- Why did Nabokov introduce John Ray to write the foreword ?

2- As we read the novel, do we find the sentences quoted above to be a true description and analysis?

I think that the foreword was written in order to let the reader know that Nabokov is not a "dirty old man". In fact, he doesn't agree with his character, Humbert Humbert. Maybe this foreword could have been written as an afterthought upon the completion. Just to let his readers know that this character is not accepted in our civilized society.

As far as the quoted lines we will have to wait and see.

Ophelia and Raving Lunatic, what are your thoughts on having this book as an official discussion? Right now it is just the two of you and perhaps 1 extra person discussing this book. Would you like this book advertised up top as an official discussion? If so during what months?

I think that is a marvelous idea. I know that Ophelia and I are both reading it now. Doesn't matter to me when. Ophelia what are you thoughts?

Thanks for the suggestion Chris, this is just great.
This is a book that deserves a few more readers.

Now, as to when: after "The Things they carried" means January.... it would be a shame to stop the momentum that has been started, even if it's only two people. What about November 1st, to give potential readers the time to buy a copy?

So what is the decision on this? Should I postpone reading any further or let it rip?