Parody Is A Game, Satire A Lesson

"While I keep everything on the brink of parody, there must be on the other hand an abyss of seriousness, and I must make my way along this narrow ridge between my own truth and the caricature of it."

In the Washington Times, an overview of Nabokov's works that finds them too heavily tarred with the brush of parody and vanity, save for one notable exception:

"For all his prolific output, Lolita rightfully graces the top of the pyramid. For once, at least, Mr. Nabokov struck the right balance between the cerebral and the sleazy, between world-weary asides and illicit sex, between -- most notoriously -- a creepy cosmopolitan's charm and Lolita's bubble-gum defiance.

"It's a rare convergence in American letters that a writer's most commercial novel is also his best. But if, at the very least, novels are escapes from the pedestrian Everyday, perversion sells darn well, particularly when it's so elegantly wrought. That may be Mr. Nabokov's final joke on the reader. We'll probably never know. "