Nymphet

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A nymphet is a sexualized adolescent girl in the early days of puberty. The term was coined by Vladimir Nabokov in the novel Lolita, in which the main character, a self-described "nympholept", uses it to describe the girls (aged 9 to 14) to whom he was attracted.

Contents

1 Lolita
2 Related terms

2.1 Faunlet
2.2 Nympholept

3 See also
4 External links

Lolita

The archetypal nymphet is the character Lolita of Vladimir Nabokov's novel, from which the term originated. Lolita has been filmed twice: the first adaptation was made in 1962 by Stanley Kubrick, and starred James Mason, Shelley Winters, Peter Sellers and, as Lolita, Sue Lyon; and in 1997 starring Jeremy Irons and Dominique Swain.

Nabokov was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the earlier film's adapted screenplay, although little of this work reached the screen.

Nabokov describes these nymphets as being "Deadly little demons" with feline features and thin, downy limbs. Nymphets are not always the type of girls a normal man would consider the prettiest, but they have a demonic ability to attract men at least ten years older than themselves.

Related terms

Faunlet

The term faunlet, also coined by Nabokov and used by the character of Humbert Humbert, is used to describe the young male counterpart of a nymphet, in the same way that the mythological fauns (or satyrs) were the counterpart of the nymphs.

Nympholept

Nabokov borrowed the term nympholept, in past times meaning "a person seized by the condition of nympholepsy", in order to describe one who could "discern" nymphets from other girls. In Humbert's own words:

"[A nympholept is] an artist and a madman, a creature of infinite melancholy with a bubble of hot poison in [his] loins and a super-voluptuous flame permanently aglow in [his] subtle spine."

External links

[Constructions of Childhood in Art and Media: Sexualized Innocence], Alexandra Wood.