Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov and The Collector by John Fowles, is an assertion of the power of spirit of love and obsession, but not as a natural, pure feeling. It is obsession that goes beyond control and regulation, obsession that in one way or another leads into the destruction of many human beings. This wild, strong passion imprisons the protagonists and flies beyond the established norms of society. This theme of 'obsessive love' exploits amorality, tragedy and destruction within the characters, revealing that – obsession can lead to loss in morality.
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is set in the time of 1947-1952 in unnamed locations in Europe and then all over the United States. Lolita triggers a deep conflict about crossing the line between obsessive-love and the perverse lust for a child. The dual personality of HumbertHumbert is captured and obsessed by the beauty and the spontaneous nature of a fourteen year old "nymphet", Dolores Haze who he nicknames Lolita, which as a consequence changes his personality and way of living. Humbert's excessive desire for possessing the child is too strong for the weak restraints of morality. It leads him to the world of sins, wrong choices, even to habitual deception. He completely disregards the moral code when concerning his lovely young Lolita – "a mixture of tender dreamy childishness and a kind of eerie vulgarity". Moreover, his obsession goes farther beyond the borders between love and sexuality, the borders between morality and immorality, normality and abnormality. .
One major and obvious theme that is constant throughout the novel is obsession. To set the book off from other books about obsession, Nabokov gives Humbert possibly the most socially unacceptable obsession of all: paedophilia. Humbert's abysmal obsession with "nymphets" had begun just after his first true love Annabel had passed away.