The comparison with Leopold Bloom is indeed striking. Bloom, while only 38, does seem much older than HH, or than Herr K. in Freud's "Dora" case, even though HH is 36 or 37 when he meets the 12-year-old Lolita and Herr K. is 35 when he forces a kiss on the 13-year-old Dora in his shop (or, less likely in the light of the historical data, he was 36 and she was 14), and 37 when he propositions her at 15 by the lake. But Bloom feels old to himself ("Made me feel young.")

Anthony Stadlen