Lolita

Rating:
Summary: This book was unlike any I've ever read (or will read again)
Review: I can't help but add my two cents to what other reviewers before me have said. This book left me speechless. I was absolutely dazzled by the prose. It was stunningly beautiful and graphic. (I am especially amazed that the prose is still this good after translation from the original Russian). I don't think I've ever read more creative writing. But the bottom line for me was this- Humbert Humbert is a pedophile- and even though the book wasn't graphic in it's detail, the insinuation was plenty clear. I had a hard time getting beyond this fact- great writing or not. What kind of person was Nabokov to have written this with such perfection? It's not classic erotica- it's simply perversion when you come right down to it. Beautifully written aberrance.

Rating:
Summary: Still Controversial
Review: This is a magnificent book in many ways, most of which have been commented on--often brilliantly--by Amazon reviewers. I would therefore like to restrict my comments to the morality of the book, and to those who to this day view the book with outrage. Even those who admire the book somehow feel compelled to comment that they are "disturbed" by it. Why is this? Let us first examine the novel itself.

As everybody knows, it is the story of Humbert Humbert, a full-grown, adult male--not an old man--who seduces a compliant twelve-year old girl, and then goes on to have a year or so long "affair" with her. I put the term "affair" in quotation marks, because it probably isn't appropriate to describe a sexual relationship between a full grown male and a female child in such terms. Is it safe to say that most rational human beings disapprove of such relationships? It is certainly safe to say that Nabakov--and his narrator--know that such relationships are wrong. This is important. The tale is not only told in the context of a moral universe, it is also told by a character who is in acceptance of a moral universe. Oh, he makes a comment here and there about some medieval king marrying his twelve year old cousin, but clearly, his heart isn't in it. He knows that he is a monster, a "brute."

Indeed, his goal was never to have sex with a conscious Lolita to begin with. His goal initially was only to fondle her after drugging her to induce sleep; she was never to know what he was doing. Of course this is also reprehensible, but clearly it shows a conscience at work. A conscience motivated in part by fear, to be sure, but also a conscience for the welfare--at least early on--of this little girl. Conscience is not normally a factor in purely prurient forms of entertainment.

Following this encounter, he takes Lolita on a journey across, around, and through the United States, living in hotel rooms, and buying clothes and food on the move. Toward the end of this, we find one of the most moving paragraphs in literature: "And so we rolled East . . . We had been everywhere. We had really seen nothing. And I catch myself thinking today that our long journey had only defiled with a sinuous trail of slime the lovely, trustful, dreamy, enormous country that by then, in retrospect, was no more to us than a collection of dog-eared maps, ruined tour-books, old tires, and her sobs in the night--every night, every night--the moment I feigned sleep." The narrator's revelation of such anguish on the part of his victim clearly works against the argument that this novel was merely intended to be pornographic.

Humbert makes it clear that he loves his Lolita. There can be no mistake about this. He loves the way she moves. He loves the down on her arm. He loves her grace on the tennis court. He loves the way she flicks her head at him when looking up from a book. He loves her toes, her shoes, her name. He describes her in beautiful, poignant, poetic language, memorable and moving in every respect. Indeed the English language has rarely been used so wonderfully. But nowhere in this book does he describe in such terms or any other terms her sexual characteristics, or comment at length or in glaring detail his physical relations with her.

Finally, there is no effort to sugar-coat the effect of all of this on Lolita herself. We learn that after she left Humbert, she entered into a series of tawdry sexual escapades--still at too young an age--with a debased playwright. We last see her in her late teens, married to a bumpkin, and living in a clapboard shack surrounded by weeds.

Obviously, to anybody who has bothered to read this book, the presentation of the subject matter is not what is objectionable. Therefore, what apparently disturbs most people is the subject matter itself. But why? Why doesn't the latest grisly serial-killer-of-the-month novel inspire such protest? (Has there ever been a time in the history of the world in which so many novels have been written about serial killers?) Why not the barely-disguised soft-porn trash by Danielle Steele or Jackie Collins? Or the latest Anne Rice gore fest? While Lolita is not really a morality tale, it certainly doesn't glorify its subject matter the way novels such as these do.

So what is it? I think that with Lolita Nabakov has perhaps unconsciously touched a nerve. We, as humans, are rational creatures. We know what is right, and we have set rules for ourselves to follow. Everybody agrees that murder is wrong. But sexual mores have changed and continue to change in our affluent Western societies. Abortion has become legal, which gives women more sexual freedom. Homosexuality has become acceptable, which allows men more sexual freedom. Prostitution and pornography are rampant. Without discussing the morality of any of this, our society is now in rapidly changing and uncharted territory. Perhaps the objection to Lolita is from those who look at the book, and wonder how far we are going to go.

Rating:
Summary: Love is above everything
Review: No matter how ugly the motive, beginning, and course of the story, it is finally about Love overcoming lust and perverted passion. As another Russian poet said, "If only you knew out of what filth grows poetry unconscious of a shame!"

Rating:
Summary: Overall a good book but alittle too descriptive...
Review: The author is definently a wonderful writer and poet - but what was going through his head when he thought up the plot for this story?? At parts, it is alittle too uncomfortable to read! The idea of a 50 year old man in love with a 12 year old is obviously not accepted in our society nor was it accepted when Nabokov wrote this book. But, it does open the reader to a new horizon of literary variety and so I recommend this novel to anyone interested, yet I do agree that it is controversial!

Rating:
Summary: luxuriant
Review: Humbert Humbert is a European émigré intellectual, who since losing his first love at the age of twelve, has found himself in the thrall of nymphets. When Humbert goes looking for a place to live, he finds a rooming house where the landlady's daughter, Dolores Haze, is the living embodiment of his lost love. Of course, she's only twelve, but our intrepid hero plots to marry & murder her mother & so gain access to his "Lolita". When an accident removes the mother, Humbert Humbert & Lolita set off cross country on a motel jumping jaunt, until finally Lolita escapes with another pedophile. Humbert now plans the revenge which lands him in prison, where he writes this memoir.

Since it's initial publication (abroad because no American firm would touch it), Lolita has been plagued by scandal. Indeed a recent movie version could not find a distributor. And this is entirely appropriate. It should be difficult to publish a work about pedophilia. However, this is undeniably a great work and deserves to be widely read by adults. Humbert Humbert's obsessive passion may be for young girls but Nabokov's is for the English language. The verbal pyrotechnics, puns, word plays, etc. are brilliant & the language is luxuriant (at some point I'll have to read an annotated version, because it's impossible to catch all the allusions).

Having read the book several years ago, I listened to the Audio version this time. It is read by Jeremy Irons and, while there are no obscenities in the book, his reading is so sensual & his enjoyment of the language is so evident, that I would urge folks to give it a listen (one caveat, it is 11.5 hours long).

GRADE: A

Rating:
Summary: Great Book It Is: Child Pornography... Nah.
Review: While most of the fantastically ignorant reviews on Amazon are penned by people who can't spell half of the words in their reviews, have dubious 'reading' abilities, and would probably delight in the Cossack tradition of killing people for having glasses, what surprises me about the reviews for this book is that some of the people who came up with monstrously incorrect interpretations of it actually sound intelligent.

Why is this book good? Well, this is more or less the stylistic equivalent of Eliot's The Wasteland in prose. It is rich with allusions of all sorts, and most of which contribute to one's overall impression of the text. Of course, Nabokov has plenty of wholly individual aspects to his prose as well. All the puns, wordplay, and ingenious, lyrical prose make this a very rewarding reading experience. The novel is an incredibly complex web of two men -- Humbert and Humbert, one now, one then (not to even mention Quilty!). As if the synchrony and diachrony weren't confusing enough, there are constant 'intrusions' by Nabokov which completely destroy the possibility of Lolita reduced to a realist novel; this is, however, to a very interesting effect. The plays on mimesis and reality are very clever.

The novel deals with some heavy issues. What does it mean to be completely morally opaque, to be the gorilla who can only see the bars of his cage and no more? Is it possible to transcend these limits? Does Humbert, then, really change? How do we relate to time? With animosity? By pretending it doesn't exist? How easy is it to relate to someone not as your creation, but as someone who is wholly his or her own person?

One thing the novel is not, however, is child pornography. There is almost zero material which could even be considered of prurient interest. Most of the sex isn't even described. What is described is actually pretty dull. You would have to be one hard-up pervert to have to resort to THIS for your jollies. Anyone who knows anything about Nabokov (or who has even read this book) would be just silly to say that this book is the work of an immoral man. It is the work of someone who is intensely aware of a person's moral parameters and the resulting interactions with others. This happens to be demonstrated through a tragic pervert.

Condemning this book harkens back to the ignorance of those who condemned Ulysses, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and Catcher in The Rye, to name a few. This book is a joy to read, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Rating:
Summary: child pornography masquerading as art
Review: It is a fitting testament to our times that this novel, which should never have been published in the first place, has come to be regarded not only as a modern classic, but as the finest novel of the last century. Only a thoroughly immoral man could have written it and only a thoroughly immoral age would celebrate it. The review cited on the cover - describing it as the "only convincing love story" of the century - is the perfect punch line to this absurd joke: what better way to demonstrate your unimpeachable sophistication than by characterizing an explicit account of pedophelia as a love story? If you want to read erotic descriptions of children and sickeningly-detailed depictions of child molesting, the law is apparently powerless (or at least unwilling) to stop you, but please, please, don't hide behind "art." Admit, at least to yourself, what you're really doing; admit what you are.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating and Beautiful Prose
Review: Nabokov's prose captivated me from his very first lines. ("Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.") The most common reaction from those who saw me reading this book was "Oh my god you're a pedaphile... that book is about an old man and a little girl". I expected to be repulsed by this book, and although the topic is very disgusting, the story is told so beautifully, so pure, so heart-wrenchingly sad in some parts and so doubled-over-with-laughter funny in other parts that I couldn't help but love the book. As the narrator warns in the beginning, "You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style."

The story, for those unfamiliar with this classic, is the aging Humbert Humbert's fanatical obsession with twelve-year-old Delores Haze. The book tells of his pursuit, conquest, and loss of her with perfect emotional and intellectual captivation. Lolita's character is painted so clearly that I kept thinking I saw her face on the street, that I heard her voice in my head. Nabokov has such a beautiful writing style that the story and its characters were always with me. I finished this book a week ago, and I keep picking it up to reread parts because of his delicious story-telling. I also keep remembering parts of it in my head.

Instead of painting the narrator as the ruthless vicious person the reader would expect a pedophile to be, Nabokov has Humbert tell his story as a victim, of someone who is kept away from the love of his life by mean things like laws and ethics. He is also incredibly funny, and in the middle of telling a horrible detail about the characters' relationship, the author will insert hilarious ramblings like "I don't care if these verb tenses aren't right".

This story captivated me, and now I have such an interest in Nabokov that I want to buy all his books and savor them one by one. I think he is not only an intellectual genius but a master of the art of storytelling - and writing - as well. This was one exhilirating read, and I recommend it to literature lovers everywhere.

Rating:
Summary: Perversity of the Most Original and Brilliant Kind
Review: Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita was first issued in 1955 by an unorthodox Paris press after being rejected by a string of American publishers, banned by the French government (presumably out of solicitude for immature English-speaking readers, although the ban was later quashed by the French High Court), pronounced unobjectionable (surprisingly) by the U.S. Customs Office, and heralded with ovations from writers, professors and critics on both sides of the Atlantic.

Lolita's scandal-tinted history, as well as its subject matter--an affair between a middle-aged sexual pervert and a twelve-year-old girl--certainly conjure up visions of pornography. But to the credit of the genius of Nabokov, there is not one single obscene term in Lolita and fans of erotica are likely to find this amazing novel more than a little boring.

Lolita, however, fairly blazes with a perversity of the most original and brilliant kind. From his shocking premise, Nabokov has distilled hundred-proof, intellectual farce. Lolita is slightly reminiscent of Thomas Mann's Confessions of Felix Krull, but Lolita has a much stronger sense of comic genius and is more brilliantly written. Nabokov, although a Russian émigré, has few rivals for virtuosity in the handling of the English language.

In a mock sententious forward, Nabokov explains that the manuscript that follows is the confession of one Humbert Humbert, a man whose fate you learn at the outset of the book. Humbert introduces himself as a European of "mixed stock" who, at the age of twelve, "in a princedom by the sea," loved and lost a petite fille fatale named Annabel Leigh and thereafter has dutifully remained in sexual bondage to "the perilous magic" of preteen sirens, whom he calls, "nymphets."

There follows a sketch of his tortured career up to the time when, in his late thirties, he settles in a quiet New England town under the same roof as the most fatal of fatally seductive nymphets, Delores Haze, herself a mixture of "tender dreamy childishness and eerie vulgarity." This nymphet, Dolores, is "Lolita," the daughter of Humbert's landlady, whom he regards with murderous intent.

Circumstances conspire to make Humbert the guardian of Lolita, his darling, and on their first night together she proves to be utterly depraved in a way in which Humbert could never have imagined, but no doubt would have loved to do so. Their subsequent motel-hopping trek across America is climaxed by Lolita's escape and Humbert's eventual revenge on a rival.

What on earth are we to make of a novel as daringly brilliant and original as Lolita? Nabokov, himself, dismissed the book's satiric aspects and said it was simply a story he had to get off his chest. That all of this is simply too ingenious is more than evident from the parodic style in which Lolita is written: a playful combination of pastiches of well-known styles, spoofing pedantry, analysis of passion à la français, Joycean word games, puns and all kind of verbal antics. Wild, fantastic and wonderfully imaginative, Lolita manages to parody everything it touches. It surely justifies those who have seen this book as a satire of the romantic novel, of "Old Europe" and "Young America," of "chronic American adolescence and shabby materialism."

But above all, Lolita remains a brilliant assertion of the power of the comic spirit to wrest sheer delight and absolute truth from the most outlandish of situations. Lolita is one of the funniest books ever written; the vision of its abominable hero, who never deludes or excuses himself, brings into grotesque relief the vulgarity and the hypocrisy that pervade the human comedy we call...life.

Rating:
Summary: An exquisite novel, only the naive would not admire!!!
Review: The content and reputation of this novel is immoral, perverted, twisted and deplorable, yet through Nabakov's insidious pen - a true reader comes to appreciate this amazing work of art. Only a scholar of immeasurable talent could induce his audience to have sympathy and even endearment toward the vile protragonist Humbert Humbert- Lolita accomplishes this. The writting was masterful, poetic and enchanting; although I find a grown man's love for a child, or 'nymph'unfathomable- I was captivated and moved by this book. I believe it to be one of the best I have ever read due to the abilities of this author. Despite the fact that Hum seduced, deflowered and decieved young Delores, one could not help but be touched by his transcendant love and adoration. The novel was less pornographic than celebrated works such as 'Lady Chatterly's Lover' and if one can only overcome the initial stigmatism associated with the idea of Lolita, they will find a tremendous and eloquent masterpiece!