Woolworths in London is pulling a line of beds called “Lolita” beds for six-year-old girls after parents pointed out that the name refers to a 1955 novel by Nabokov about a sexually active 12-year-old girl.

What is most troubling about this story is that no one at Woolworths appears to know who Vladimir Nabokov is and knew of his 1955 novel, “Lolita.”

The store blissfully marketed the Lolita Midsleeper Combi, a whitewashed wooden bed with pull-out desk and cupboard intended for six-year-old girls.

The store explains that ” the staff who run the website had never heard of Lolita, and to be honest no one else here had either. We had to look it up on (online encyclopedia) Wikipedia. But we certainly know who she is now.”

Now if that is not an indictment of modern business and society, I don’t know what is. No doubt Woolworths is now going to replace it with the “Kite Runner” trundle bed line.

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