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Actually, I wonder if we should actually spend some time on the controversy of this book. It might be a bit strange to conduct a discussion on one of the most controversial books of the 20th century and not try to understand the reactions it generates.
Even today - as we've seen here in MR - this book generates heated discussion and protest.
I don't know if the sexual abuse of minors is actually what Nabokov wants to explore in this book or whether he's using this as a powerful example of a more symbolic rape that we all submit to when our innocence is taken by the society around us. But if so, he's used a really powerful vehicle. I wonder sometimes if it was a little too powerful as the crime often becomes the focus rather than the message. This is often referred to as a book about a paedophile rather than a book about the loss of innocence.
Did Nabokov go too far to make his point? Is the hammer with which he strikes obscuring what he is attempting to uncover? Will this forever be a book about a paedophile?
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