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Lolita Book 1, Chapter 16 Summary

  • The kiss is almost too much for Humbert to bear, but he is shocked to his senses when Louise, the maid, hands him a love letter from Charlotte. The letter is confession-style, complete with bad French phrases and sentimental descriptions of how long she has loved him; she commands that he leave immediately if he does not feel the same.
  • He also finds out that Lolita had a little brother who died at age two, when Lolita was four.
  • He throws the letter in the toilet.
  • Wandering in the house feeling disgust about the letter, Humbert finds himself in Lolita's room. Pinned to her wall is an ad featuring a vaguely handsome man. Humbert notices that Lolita wrote "H.H." next to it with an arrow. Next to the ad is a picture of a playwright smoking a Drome cigarette.