Humbert Humbert Timeline and Summary

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• 1910: First half of the year, Humbert Humbert is born in Paris, France.
• 1913: Humbert's mother is killed by lightning near Moulinet, Alpes-Maritimes.
• Summer, 1923: Humbert and Annabel Leigh's enjoy a brief love affair on the Riviera, which is thwarted by her parents.
• 1926: Annabel dies of typhoid fever on the Greek island of Corfu; Humbert begins his university studies, first in Paris, then in London.
• 1935: Humbert frequents Monique, a young Paris prostitute, then marries Valeria Zborovsky, daughter of a Polish doctor.
• Spring, 1940: Humbert sails to New York City.
• 1943: Humbert has to spend more than year in a psychiatric clinic, returns to his work, then has to go back to the hospital.
• 1944-46: Humbert joins an obscure expedition to arctic Canada as a sort of research psychologist.
• 1946-47: Soon after his return from arctic Canada, Humbert has another bout with insanity and goes back to a sanitarium.
• 1947: Humbert moves to Ramsdale, into the house of widowed Charlotte Haze and her daughter, Dolores. He is 37, she is 12 ½ years old.
• June, 1947: Humbert and Charlotte marry.
• August, 1947: Charlotte is hit by a car.
• August, 1947: Humbert comes to retrieve Lolita at Camp Q.
• August 14, 1947: Humbert leaves Camp Q with Lolita; the pair checks in to The Enchanted Hunters hotel.
• August 15, 1947: This is the day of the first sexual act between Humbert and Lolita; they begin their extensive travels all over the states.
• August, 1948: One year of travels around the US ends; they arrive in Beardsley.
• May, 1949: Humbert and Lolita leave for their second trip around the United States.
• July 5, 1949: Lolita disappears from the hospital; Humbert begins his mad search for her abductor.
• November 18, 1949: Humbert arrives in Beardsley and stays a few days.
• January, 1950: Humbert is admitted to a psychiatric clinic in Quebec again because he feels he is "losing contact with reality"; he stays until May.
• May, 1950: In a bar between Montreal and New York, Humbert meets Rita; from summer 1950 to summer 1952 he travels around and lives with her.
• 1951-52: Humbert goes to Cantrip College as a visiting lecturer.
• September 22, 1952: Humbert receives a letter from Lolita; Humbert drives to Coalmont.
• September 23, 1952: Humbert meets with Lolita, now Mrs. Richard F. Schiller.
• September, 25, 1952: Humbert kills Clare Quilty at Pavor Manor and is arrested for driving on the wrong side of the road.
• End of September to mid-November, 1952: Facing his trial, Humbert writes Lolita, first in a psychiatric ward, then in jail.
• November 16, 1952: Humbert dies of coronary thrombosis, "a few days before his trial was scheduled to start."
• August 5, 1955: John Ray, Jr., Ph.D. finishes his Foreword to Humbert's manuscript.