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I wanted to re-read Nabokov's Lolita after peaking just to see if anything new stood out, and this one sure did:
Humbert actually fantasizes early on in the book (apologies, I can't find the specific passage) about dressing up as another girl in order to join Dolores Haze while she was at summer camp. He imagines that he would camp out in the woods near the camp in school girl gear, and the girls would "notice him" and welcome him into their camp or something. yeesh.
My jaw dropped reading that passage. It just shows that this shit is not new in the slightest and LARPing as a woman or girl has always been a part of a predator's playbook. Just thought it was interesting.
This is a simplistic take.
Lolita is narrated by Humbert Humbert. He is a villain and a monster. What monster ever views themself as the bad guy, though? If HH spent the whole of the book self-flagellating about his villainy, it wouldn't have been an accurate portrait of a pedophile. It never would have been a classic because it wouldn't have been believable--it would have read like fanfiction. If HH had the capacity for empathy , he wouldn't have raped Dolores in the first place. Of course HH spends the book justifying to others why he did what he did. That is flawed, narcissistic humanity, whitewashed with pretty words.
He doesn't recognize the humanity of Dolores, but you still catch glimpses of her suffering which HH glosses over.
That doesn't exactly negate what I said.