Rating: 
Summary: Disturbance Shaded by Writing
Review: This piece exemplifies the elegance of the English language. Vladamir Nabokov creates a masterpiece telling the story of a disturbing pedophile yet blinds his audience with his enchanting writing.
Lolita tells a story Humbert Humbert and his obsession for "nymphets" which springs from his childhood romance with a young girl named Annabel. A nymphet could be described as a girl between the ages of 9 and 14 who demonstrates some "fantastic power" unbeknownst to most her age. Humbert never got the chance to consummate his relationship with Annabel and grew up longing for a sexual relationship with young women who reminded him of her. Throughout college he studied and had prostitutes in and out of his life. He had a short term relationship with one prostitute named Monique, but said she lost her ability to be a nymphet and moved on.
Humbert immigrates to America after college and is in search of a place to live. Charlotte Haze offers Humbert a room which he is about to turn down until he sees Haze's daughter, Lolita. Lolita reminds him so much of Annabel that he even marries Charlotte to get close to Lolita. Charlotte hates Lolita and sends her away to boarding school. Humbert is devastated and writes pages upon pages in his journal about Lolita. Charlotte finds the journal and is disgusted by Humbert, but before his secret gets out, she is hit by a car and killed, leaving Humbert and Lolita alone. For a year the two travel around and posing as father and daughter, but really are on and off lovers.
Throughout the novel there are many characters that symbolize the different sides of Humbert. Nabokov does an extraordinary job of making the reader believe Humbert is a descent human being. Humbert is intelligent and good looking, so his relationship with Lolita doesn't seem like a man desperate for love and only finding it from a young girl. At some points Nabokov almost made me think that Lolita was the seducer and Humbert the victim. Humbert's mind and his way of words makes the pages turn. This character has no edges to him and rarely puts himself first, though he fights uncontrollably with his feelings for Lolita. Towards the end of the book it seems almost as if the view changes and instead of being told by Humbert, it's as if someone else is telling the story because you begin to see the darker side of Humbert and he doubts himself and his actions.
Overall I would recommend this book. I think it would be a great book to have as a group discussion because there are many different happenings that Nabokov leaves up to the reader to interpret. Definitely a book that could be read twice and pick up on more things that were missed the first time around.
Rating: 
Summary: Innocence lost
Review: I have read a fair amount of novels about young girls who seduce adult men -- Nude Men, Innocents, to name two -- but none of them has been as dark, sensuous and perverse as Lolita.
The novel that inspired the aforementioned bestsellers, Nabokov's 1955 classic caused a great deal of controversy the time in which it was released. The book's sinister and erotic language was rather out of its time. Humbert, the protagonist, is a very tormented man. He falls for a beautiful teenage girl who reminds him of an adolescent romance with a young woman he never saw again. What follows is one of the most decadent and beautiful stories I have ever read in literature. As previously mentioned, the darkness and controversial subject matter catapulted Lolita as one of the most memorable pieces of literature of all time. Lolita has also inspired various writers to write about this obscured and taboo genre. But, alas, there hasn't been a novel that has been able to surpass this one...
Rating:
Summary: Loilta's Lustful Literary Eyes
Review: This work is a literary masterpiece in the English language. Nabokov's prose and form is at the apex of the writer's craft. A reader who appreciates this work, appreciates linguistic form, allussion and metaphor. Yet, unfortunately due to the content of the novel, it has drawn many readers who can not or will not see beyond the "surface" content and this content is so troubling to them that they can not even appreciate the linguistic form it is presented in. Even though the introduction itself states that this novel is an allussion to the relationship between the old world Europe and the new world America. There is blatant refusal to acknowledge this. It is like me saying I hate Orwell's novel "Animal Farm" because it is just about a bunch of animals taking over a farm and this bothers me. The reader's failure to grasp the deeper allusion of these stories is the failure of the reader. Even at this late date in 2002, I have seen suggestions that this great novel be banned. Literature is not philosophy or law and not neccessarily intended to structure people's views and actions in the world. It is inteneded to provoke and entertain thier consciousness mind. Frigid eyes from firm rigid minds should avoid this masterpiece like moths should avoid the flame. This work, is for those who feel a great lust for literature, a love of language and enjoy the foreplay and aticipation of a great writer touching an open and receptive mind.
Rating:
Summary: Best book ever.
Review: There's not really much to sya about this book that hasn't already been said. So I will just say that it is my favorite book of all time. The prose is astounding, the story is marvelous and the characters are some of the most interesting you will ever find.
Rating:
Summary: A marvel of modern prose...
Review: ...although if you want to argue that it's poetry, I can't stop you. It's hard to believe that English is Nabokov's third language. It's also probably impossible to read the first paragraph without having your curiosity piqued. Try it, if you haven't read it already. I'd go so far as to say it's maybe the best opening I've ever read in a book, besides the one from which I took my name.
People unfamiliar with the work will probably approach it with a certain amount of apprehension. It's really about as far from pornography as you can get, though. The author provides a witty and fairly enlightening essay addressing charges of obscenity as an epilogue. The only real problem I can find with this book is that the writing is a bit too floral in places. Even the keenest of literary minds will most likely falter a bit here. For readability, Lolita loses one star. This, however, is part of what makes it beautiful: it is no way an ordinary book, one that you can read and be done with in a week. For those desiring a challenge, or a refreshingly original style, Nabokov comes highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: It's in the writing as well as the story
Review: As the Village Voice Literary Supplement so fittingly described it: this is indeed the definitive love story of our age.
To recap the plot would be pointless as it's been done too many times already.
Humbert Humbert is an indelible character that no reader could ever forget. His longings, schemes and sense of humor make the pages float by as if you're skimming a newspaper. Lolita can't be beat for its combination of high quality literary crafsmanship with its enthralling storyline. Humbert's sickness for the child makes for fascinating reading and allows the reader to get into the mind of this manipulator and see the perverted wheels turning. During the conclusion when he meets up with Lo for the last time and they have their final face to face, Humbert discovers an actual woman and he's obviously disappointed and heartbroken. This passage is some of the finest writing you'll ever read and conveys the emotions involved with subtlety and eloquence, which is rarely duplicated in contemporary literature. With Lolita, Nabokov is a genius at work punching out a classic novel.
Rating:
Summary: a vile story told with such style it becomes perfection
Review: That is not enthusiastic enough. Lolita, genuinely, is one of the very best books I have ever read. From the very start, where words cascade like a violent leaf storm, the winds cluttering the world around and blocking out everything with falling debris, Lolita takes off and never ceases, the cunning and the absolute clarity of gorgeousness filing the words back down into the free flowing story so many people have grown to have varying opinions about. For, if nothing else, Lolita is about language, about the power of words over action, of thought over reality and the admitted lunacy of the narrator makes his voice all the more compelling: a lucid madman giving free reign to the truth as he sees it regarding not just his past misdeeds, but the very meaning of his life itself. There is nothing out of place in Lolita, a creepily intensifying and hilarious story that gets more and more urgent as the action grows increasingly numb (perhaps an invokation of Humbert's utter despair) and frequently too absurd to believe. The coincidences that fitfully help point A get to point B are not, in the case of Lolita, a contrivance meant to speed the action along, but baffle poor Humbert certainly more than the lax reader peering voyueristically into his life as these ridiculous ordeals appear to have actually happened to him--or at least that's how his fevered brain remembers them. This book proves a powerful point regarding individual human perception. Perceptions of good, perceptions of evil, ideas of beauty and true love and neverending hatred are all variable, are all open to interpretation and any singular excuse one could employ (psychological, moral or otherwise) is just another generalization to explain away an opinion another doesn't happen to agree with--
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing yet beautiful prose
Review: The storyline of this timeless Nabokov classics has been wide-known and controversial: pedaphile narrator Humbert Humbert tells the tale of how he pathetically infatuates with the nymphet. Well-educated and good-mannered, Humbert was born to the upper reach of European social strata. His father was a mixed French and Austrian descent who owned luxurious hotel on the Riviera. Young Humbert lives a joyous life until the loss of his puppy love Annabel who dies of typhus in Corfu. The excessive desire for Annabel's image rekindles when grown-up Humbert Humbert met 12-year-old Dolores Haze in America. Lolita, or "Lo", as Humbert addressed her, is what Humbert called "light of my life, fire of my loins". The scenes where Humbert Humbert contemplated a way to get Charlotte Haze (Lo's mother) out of the picture were brilliant. The scenes where Lo seduced Humbert Humbert to making out were equally impressive. Humbert Humbert's passion for little Lo simply reflected his infatuation for his lost love Annabel: obessive, devouring, doomed and addicted. Part I of the book devotes to Humbert Humbert's infatuation of the numphet; while the second half tells of Humbert and Lo's romping around the country. The entire book fills with passionate, explicit, and beautifully-written prose, page after page. Afer all, Lolita is more or less, a twisted kind of love story. It's a meditation on love as there is no tomorrow. In a sense, Humbert Humbert was portraited as a victim himself, toiled by the miserable memories of his lost love in adolescence.
Rating: 
Summary: A tale of two parts
Review: This book is a tragedy; not in the standard literary sense, but in a comparison of Part One and Part Two. Part One has an urgency and emotion to it rarely encountered in fiction. Part Two is a dull romp across the country, with blood and irrational action dominating the final pages. In Nabokov's notes at the end of the novel, he writes that publishers thought Part Two was too long. They were right. He should have published just Part One as a novella, and left the magic stand alone.
Rating:
Summary: A magnificent work of fiction
Review: This is a magnificent book, a must-read, even though many people may consider it decidedly un-PC. Nabokov writes beautifully, and his characters are very, very human. The strange thing about the book is that one cannot but feel sympathy for Humbert Humbert, the paedophile narrator, who is as much a victim as his young lover. I also enjoyed the subtle, sly humour, and the wonderful afterword by Nabokov. I'm not sure if the afterword is included in this edition, but if not it is well worth getting a copy which has it. I also enjoyed the movie with Jeremy Irons, which did not get the critical acclaim it deserved.. Also worth looking for is the spoof Lolita (I think it was called "Grannita") in Misreadings by Umberto Eco.
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