Lolita

Rating:
Summary: #1
Review: I have no words. It's just the best book of 20th century.

Rating:
Summary: An Original Love Story And More
Review: A brilliant book by what appears to be a brilliant author (this is the first book of Nabokov's I've read). The first thing you have to do is disregard everything you have heard about this being a vulgar, exploiting book. It is not. There is no pornography to be found here - unlike Dostoyevsky who describes the deeds of his villain in detail, Nabokov avoids the cleverly set trap that would surely have made this a much less appealing novel. What it is, and much more so than for example "Romeo and Juliet", is a love story. Granted, it is a story about forbidden love; a middle-aged man desperately in love with a young girl, but it is still a love story.

Let me return once more to Dostoyevsky. I found myself comparing Humbert Humbert to Dostoyevsky's Raskolnikov in "Crime and Punishment" - a person torn apart by his own conscience, trying to hang on to his sanity by telling himself that he is doing the right thing. And just like Dostoyevsky, Nabokov takes us inside the mind of a criminal, as if he is trying to makle us understand him. And the greatness of Nabokov lies in the fact that he pulls it off. Even though you don't like Humbert - and you most certainly will not - you can begin to understand the reasons behind his behavior. Perhaps this - and the beautiful prose, of course - is the true greatness of Vladimir Nabokov.

Rating:
Summary: a six star book
Review: One of the best books ever written, hands down. Lolita is an incedible love story, a story of the descent into madness, and an exploration of man and morality.

Lolita is incredibly written. Go read the illiteration in the first paragraph if you have any doubts. It is a mind blower.

...Lolita is simply the best.

Rating:
Summary: At the Top of My List
Review: The most absolutely beautifully written novel of the 20th century. It will make you question your own morals and values. A novel that can make you do this is truly great. The language and imagery used within is incredible. It's hard to believe that English is not Nabokov's first language. If you have some background in literature, you will enjoy his subtle references to E.A. Poe, etc. This is the only book to ever make me cry. I read the ending 4 times; I didn't want it to end.

Rating:
Summary: just can't understand
Review: I like to think of myself as open minded and when i first heard about lolita in an english class i decided to read it, before i'd had chance to read it i noticed that Adrian Lynnes version was on TV and i decided to watch it, i actually remmeber thinking "thats not too bad" but of course the girl involved was 14 going on 15, she was at an age that she could be sexually aware and sexually active. then i came to read this novel and as hard as i tried i just couldn't understand it, she was 12, how could a 12 year old girl seduce a grown man? To me an innocent 12 year old girl would only just beginning to coy with the idea of holding hands with another little boy. And because of this i just couldn't enjoy reading the novel, it didn't seem real, i could just about begin to understand humberts side but the 12 year old lolita just got to me, i just found it to unbelieveable that a girl of that age would be capable of doing any of things she is described to have done in 'Lolita'.

Having said that i'm still awarding a high score because of language, the style , the potrayal of Humberts character and every other aspect of this novel except lolitas age.

I would reccomend reading Lolita but only if you can get your heard around the idea of her and him (obviously no one could understand the attraction)and you are not too easy to judge a person or let your morals jump in the way of your judgement (although some may say thats exactly what i did)

Read it with an open mind and make yourself aware of the content so you can be more understanding, (maybe??) and you will find lolita a truly brilliant novel, one of the very best the 20th century has to offer.

Rating:
Summary: A rare gem
Review: This is a wonderfully paradoxical novel. On the one hand, it deals with subject matter that most average people would run from like the plague, condemning it the entire way. Yet, on the other, it is wrought in such a gorgeous style that one wonders just how someone could put a beautiful wrapping over such a depraved frame. All symbolism aside, Nabokov's was a mind of the highest order. He wanted to present a love, while immoral and illegal, as just that: love. Nabokov wanted us to come away from his work questioning why we have some of the structures in society that we do. Blind faith and acceptance of such ideas can lead to absurd assumptions about things in our world. We might begin to take everything for granted, and that is what Nabokov wanted to expose and challenge. Of course, carrying on a relationship with a twelve year old girl is abhorrent, but why is it repulsive? Why have we enacted laws against such behavior?
By writing in such a polished, tender fashion, Nabokov avoids the gratuitous nature usually assigned to such material. He illuminates the fact that love and relationships are never simple, that sex is rarely just a physical act, and the reasons we become attached to someone else as just as mystifying as Humbert's love for his nymphet. By examining one of the more repulsive aspects of love, we find that we should always examine our desires, passions, and faults.

Rating:
Summary: Important to Know: This Book Is Comedic
Review: I should probably be better prepared before writing about an important piece of literature such as LOLITA, yet had to jump in to defend one of the most perfectly crafted books I've ever read. Of the readers who are APPALLED by the pedophilic (sp?) aspect of the story, I wonder if they realize that the novel is esentially a comedy. The book is loaded with humor, with the situation between Humbert and young Dolores satirizing several things. Mainly, (and just off the top of my head), the fact that Lolita is such an ordinary, bratty girl makes Humbert's overblown fascination seem funny. Not only is she the wrong age for him, she's so shallow and mundane that she doesn't seem worthy of worship. Doesn't this say something about pop culture, and about whatever your own sexual obsessions might be.....how the most ridiculous, ordinary things can reduce us to dithering idiots? In a broader sense, the book satirizes that whole genre of novels in which innocent American girls (such as DAISY MILLER) go overseas, only to end up being ruined by suave, continental men. In LOLITA, a sophisticated European comes to New England and is demolished by the girl next door. A girl in roller skates with scabs on her knees.
What makes the book haunting, though, is the dark sadness that runs beneath the situation. Because Humbert Humbert and Dolores Haze are so terribly mismatched, (their age just being part of it), they can never achieve true love. And even if Dolores could return the older man's affection, he'd stop loving her as she grew up. Yes, if the story were taken seriously, it would be disturbing. But who's taking it seriously? And what no review can convey is the quality of Nabokov's prose - - his sheer gift for the use of language. The words carry you like a river.
Incidentally, if you respond to Nabokov's tone, you might check out another book that made me think upon reading the first page, "God, this writer is a real craftsman." I AM MARY DUNNE by Brian Moore.

Rating:
Summary: How To Turn a Car Ride Into a Religious Experience
Review: Jeremy Irons's dramatization of Nabokov's masterpiece makes an already excellent book even better. Few books can be enjoyed on audiotape the way this one can. Having read the book years before, I embarked on the audio version to refamiliarize myself with Nabokov's style. Plot often takes a backseat to style in this work, though when the two come together, Nabokov's genius comes alive. Humbert's language can only be fully appreciated when one stops taking it too seriously; the French phrases and the often decadent descriptions present a high level of parody. Beneath the parody, however, is the work of a master stylist. I listened to the audiobook mostly in my car, and much of the time I stopped concentrating on plot and just listened to the music of the language. Jeremy Irons is perfect for Humbert's first-person narration. Not only is his voice trés sexy, it also captures all the nuances of Humbert's mental state and constantly flip-flopping emotion

Rating:
Summary: The Intentional Fiction
Review: Nabokov was an elaborate escape artist. First from an oppressive Russia, then from pre-war Germany, then from America and a last exile in Switzerland. His books are all in one way or another about characters who are escaping a situation. To really enjoy Nabokov it is best to start with an early work like The Defense and then work your way forward to Lolita which is this Russian masters masterpiece. After that you can continue on with Pale Fire, Ada, Speak Memory and his last novellas. Lolita is the one though if you only want to read one. Judging by this book Nabokovs stay in America was one that was at least amusing. The critique of middle American life in the fifties is very very high comedy. Nabokov shares the jokes and they are written in the very finest English as were his remaining works so he did admire something we possessed. As the novel progresses and Humbert's fine mind begins its gradual, inevitable decline America no longer really feels like America but more like something Grimm may have conjured to scare Europeans from coming over here. Nabokov is a fabulist and a first rate one. He sits on his throne and laughs to himself one imagines as his middle American morality play unfolds. If you can find the recording of Nabokov himself reading the showdown chapter of this book between Humbert and Claire Quilty you can savor Nabokovian prose while Nabokov does the same.

Rating:
Summary: Satisfy the empty feeling of a lost 1st love
Review: The most impressive thing about Lolita is the depth of the writing ' especially considering it was written not in Nabakov's native tongue. Each sentence that occurs is a poetic undertaking and to truly appreciate it you sometimes need to read it more than once to take in the full flavor of the sentence. The book starts out as a confession of sorts from the protagonist, Humbert Humbert, the twisted, and some people would argue wicked man who is hopelessly in love with pedophilia. As a boy he had a brief sexual encounter with a girl, but the two were never able to fully satisfy themselves in complete sexual contact. As a result, he would argue, he was desperately craved the attention of young girls to still satisfy that empty feeling and premature lost of his first love. Along comes Dolores Haze, a nymphet of unspeakable charm and beauty and under the age of thirteen. The difference between fantasy and reality merge and the pedophiliac succeeds in debauching this young girl. However, the twist is that the girl actually seduces the adult, and he is insanely in love with a woman/child. The two take a car trip across America for two years while engaging in a perversion that some would call wicked and others a love act. The writing is splendid and the characters are multifaceted. I agree with both groups that the book is perverse, but it is also a vast love story.