Awe and exhiliration–along with heartbreak and mordant wit–abound in Lolita, Nabokov’s most famous and controversial novel, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert’s obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America. Most of all, it is a meditation on … love–love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.
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I can see why there is so much controversy with this book. The subject matter is a little disturbing, but it is one of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read. I think this may be one of my all-time favourites. Nobokov is incredible, and Lolita is a heart-wrenching read worthy of any classic reader’s list.
I really couldn’t fault this book in any way. It proves that books can be enjoyed even when the characters aren’t likeable. Other people in my book club found it in bad taste. Bad taste is all around us. And it was part of the book’s cleverness that you often feel uncomfortable as you’re laughing.
This book is NOT a romance; it is a comic novel for adults. Yes, it is polysyllabic and yes, it deals with child molestation in a hilarious manner but it is hands down the funniest book I’ve ever read. Don’t listen to what other people have said or written about this book. Read it yourself and you decide.
Spectacular writing. I was blown away.
I was drew in to read this book when I learned it was taboo…a MAJOR favorite of mine. It only took the very first paragraph to hook me and not let go. This story, while unusual and bizarre and forbidden, was a beautifully written story about the inner workings of a madman with an obsession named Lolita. Both their mutual manipulations and …
Lolita does not need another lengthy review. It has been analyzed with microscopic lens ad nauseam. I want to scream enough – Nabokov is a genius with word play, we know. There are multiple meanings and duplicity throughout the novel. Yes it is about pedophilia. Yes you can feel sorry for Humbert Humbert or you can be outraged that anyone would be …
Spoiler alert:
I had to read this book since just about every list I’ve ever seen of “the 100 greatest books of all time” all list this book in the top 10. It was pretty frustrating with all of the French in it which added nothing to the book, only detracted from it, he might as well have just left those parts blank, it would have been less …
The best book I have ever read. Nabokov’s prose is second to none.
As far as prose go, Lolita has got to be my all-time favorite book. Nabokov swam in the depths of genius with this one!
4.5 stars.
Jeremy Irons’s (audiobook) performance? Superb. A zillion stars.
Prose and word choice? A zillion stars.
Format choices: excellent
Ending/how things wrapped up: didn’t live up to the rest of the book imho.
It was twisted but his genuine love for her was sad, It was inappropriate and interesting. The end was no happily ever after i was shocked.
This is the story of Humbert Humbert, told in his own words through a journal, and his obsession with Dolores Haze, an almost 13-year old girl who only he called Lolita. I have a vague recollection of the original movie starring James Mason, Shelley Winters & Sue Lyon, which I watched as a pre-teen (surely my mother didn’t know anything about the …
Difficult to know what to say about this book. The writing is superb, the characters brilliantly depicted, the subject matter: horrible. At times it’s a very difficult, repulsive read. But the writing is flawless. It is written through the eyes of Humbert Humbert, a self confessed intellectual middle aged pervert who forms a relationship with …
After reading My Dark Vanessa a few months ago, I thought I’d revisit Nabokov’s masterpiece, Lolita, which I hadn’t read since I was a teenager. The more I reread this one, the more perplexed I become at the fact that anyone could possibly view it as a love story. Lolita is the story of Humbert Humbert, a pedophile who is sexually obsessed with …
Nabokov inexplicably draws you into a world you wouldn’t otherwise want to visit let alone know about. This was one of those stories that taught me early on as a writer that an odd, unsympathetic, and practically evil voice can still be compelling to a reader when done effectively.
As pedantic as the protagonist is unsympathetic.
Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita is the only book I’ve ever read as an adult male that made me feel uncomfortable from cover to cover. All the more reason why this review was necessary. The crux of the story revolves around the lust felt by a 40 year old man for a 12 year old girl, a subject all mainstream authors would avoid in this day and age. One of …
Nabokov is one of a kind and so is this book. The relationship between Humbert and Lolita made this book controversial. It is definitely a twisted kind of treat to get inside Humbert’s mind. But another great aspect of the novel is his and Lolita’s road trip through 1950s America. Priceless.
This book was a little hard for me to listen to. Hearing the story of child molestation from the molesters point of view. He disgusted me. However, it was an interesting tale.
Well written, but disturbing subject matter.