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blues241's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Violence
yjd's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Hmmmm. I was rather surprised to see so many bad reviews calling the book disturbing and describing Humbert as a creep. That is the point?? This book was a challenging foray into the insidious manipulation an abuser can wield. Not just over their victim but themselves too. It was really interesting to see the self-manipulation Humbert engaged in in order to delude himself and justify his abuse. It was equally fascinating to see his desire to present himself as a "tempted," "weak" man to the reader. An absolute masterclass in an unreliable narrator - you could never take anything at face value in the book. The prose was beautiful and created a fascinating juxtaposition against the content.
I feel bad saying the book dragged in parts, but it definitely felt like that at times. For me, the fascinating narrative choice also had its drawbacks. Seeing things from Humbert's perspective was incredibly challenging and made this book what it is. Yet, it left me with a feeling of curiosity regarding Lolita. I really just wanted one glimpse into her psyche that was not coloured by Humbert's garbage perspective. But I suppose that's for a different book.
I feel bad saying the book dragged in parts, but it definitely felt like that at times. For me, the fascinating narrative choice also had its drawbacks. Seeing things from Humbert's perspective was incredibly challenging and made this book what it is. Yet, it left me with a feeling of curiosity regarding Lolita. I really just wanted one glimpse into her psyche that was not coloured by Humbert's garbage perspective. But I suppose that's for a different book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse and Pedophilia
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Gun violence and Violence
aisclaradm's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Really incredible. I was in a bit of a reading slump and it took me longer than it should have to get through the book, but I never didn’t enjoy it. Despite how vile the narrator and his actions are, there’s something strangely touching about how pathetic and hateful he is. Right from the very beginning until the very last page, this book was just beautiful, though one feels uncomfortable and disgusting throughout most of it.
Sometimes a tad slow, but that’s more so an indictment of my attention span and less so of one on the book itself.
Sometimes a tad slow, but that’s more so an indictment of my attention span and less so of one on the book itself.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Domestic abuse, Stalking, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Gun violence, Sexual assault, and Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Pregnancy
Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Car accident
bearwhocanreadbecauseofmagic's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I read this book because I wanted to know how such a strong focus on maybe the most taboo subject of our time could be a classic. I understand why now.
The brutal look into the mind of the Humbert Humbert was chilling, funny, tragic, and so horrendously uninhibited that it was difficult to not be sucked in when dressed in some of the best prose I’ve read.
Don’t expect to walk away from this read feeling like sunshine. Naturally, it is a very disturbing book, but it is also intoxicating and beautiful and deserves its place.
The brutal look into the mind of the Humbert Humbert was chilling, funny, tragic, and so horrendously uninhibited that it was difficult to not be sucked in when dressed in some of the best prose I’ve read.
Don’t expect to walk away from this read feeling like sunshine. Naturally, it is a very disturbing book, but it is also intoxicating and beautiful and deserves its place.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual violence, Child abuse, and Pedophilia
Moderate: Violence and Gun violence
Minor: Racism
g1lg4mesh's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I find myself in a pickle of sorts in reviewing this book- I cannot in good faith blindly recommend it, and yet it is simultaneously the most incredible text I have ever engaged with. Lolita simply redefines the standard of the masterpiece, building not a glass ceiling (such tangibilities are beneath it), rather, casting the colloquial “bar” to the very heavens, where it may never be seen again. Only read this book if you are prepared to finish it- know too that this is no simple matter- but read this book, if you may be so bold. It will challenge you, and you may want to hurl it into a fire at times, but still, you simply must make it to that final page. This is a book that redefines the 5th star, and shakes any attempt at literary tier lists to its very core.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Violence, Child abuse, Death, Incest, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Death of parent, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual harassment, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Alcohol, Body shaming, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Car accident, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Stalking, and Injury/Injury detail
dnvnuwu's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Vocabulary is way too complicated and obscure.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Pedophilia, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Sexual assault, and Hate crime
storyshory's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest and Sexual assault
Moderate: Violence
sundragonheartt's review against another edition
very important book, will be reading the various discourses surrounding it, but I am not in a good enough mental state to handle such heavy subject matter right now.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, and Violence
ellisy's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Lolita, that highly controversial novel that set a before and after not only in American literature, but in modern culture as a whole. That love letter to monstrous indulgence, the attempt of a psychopath to redeem his soul and make his and his victim's lives one inmortal story. As he said "I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita".
Maybe one of the most remarcable things about this story is the way it's told. We are warned at the beginning of what this text really is: a confession and desperate attempt of a criminal to save himself. One that "should make all of us apply ourselves with still greater vigilance and vision to the task of bringing up a better generation in a safer world". Its narrator, a pedophile that both tries to trick you into beeling his side of the story and recognizes what he's done, one you cannot fully believe since he himself said that "I have camouflaged what I could so as not to hurt people". Which he does in the most poetical kind of way, almost convincing you for some bits until you get to the most sordid parts and comments, that reminds you of what he really is.
Something really interesting about him is the juxtaposition between the romantic and the monster, between "concupiscent co-operation (or the illusion of it) to dirty old man, from romance to self-revolution, from reciprocation to the sordid solipsism of sperm on the hand. Nabokov's subject and Humbert's affliction is the discrepancy between the dizzy desire and the dingy thruth". As Humbert said "Despite the horrible hopelessness of it all, I still dwelled deep in my elected paradise—a paradise whose skies were the color of hell-flames—bit still a paradise". And as well recognized later on, "I loved you. I was a pentapod monster, but I loved you. I was despicable and brutal, and turpid, and everything, mais je t'aimais, je t'aimais! And there were times when I knew how you felt, and it was hell to know it, my little one. Lolita girl, brave Dolly Schiller". He knew that he was hurting her, but he kept on, he knew that he was monstrous, but he kept on, and this would have never ended, if Dolores wouldn't have scaped.
Maybe that's why that's one of the most heartbreaking parts of the story. The criminal knew how sordidly he had ruined Dolores's live, but he kept on, telling himself that he loved her. He used this little child until she bled, he knew she hated him, and still tried to make himself and us believe that he was the misunderstood poet, the victim somehow. But still he doesn't lay flat, he is not just "the bad guy" he's a monster, but he has dimensions, a story to tell after and before, some humanness in him that still makes us feel sorry somehow, even if after we still feel sick of what he's done.
Lolita is a terrifying story, in which not only a child was kidnapped but failed by the system that was supposed to protect her, by the people around them who had to have suspission that something was off, and even by the legacy it left, since Lolita became both a sexual figure and a "romance" story, with people commenting on the novel as "a record of Nabokov's love affair with the romantic novel". For me, it's the confession of a monstrous passion from the point of view of the aggressor, one that's written trying to cover what happened and you still see through the lies, one with multidimensional characters and story that fills you with rage, disgust and helplessness, and a narrative that tries to trick you. And for that, it's a masterpiece of the English language, a gem that's hard to look at, but you still should, a classic of American literature.
Maybe one of the most remarcable things about this story is the way it's told. We are warned at the beginning of what this text really is: a confession and desperate attempt of a criminal to save himself. One that "should make all of us apply ourselves with still greater vigilance and vision to the task of bringing up a better generation in a safer world". Its narrator, a pedophile that both tries to trick you into beeling his side of the story and recognizes what he's done, one you cannot fully believe since he himself said that "I have camouflaged what I could so as not to hurt people". Which he does in the most poetical kind of way, almost convincing you for some bits until you get to the most sordid parts and comments, that reminds you of what he really is.
Something really interesting about him is the juxtaposition between the romantic and the monster, between "concupiscent co-operation (or the illusion of it) to dirty old man, from romance to self-revolution, from reciprocation to the sordid solipsism of sperm on the hand. Nabokov's subject and Humbert's affliction is the discrepancy between the dizzy desire and the dingy thruth". As Humbert said "Despite the horrible hopelessness of it all, I still dwelled deep in my elected paradise—a paradise whose skies were the color of hell-flames—bit still a paradise". And as well recognized later on, "I loved you. I was a pentapod monster, but I loved you. I was despicable and brutal, and turpid, and everything, mais je t'aimais, je t'aimais! And there were times when I knew how you felt, and it was hell to know it, my little one. Lolita girl, brave Dolly Schiller". He knew that he was hurting her, but he kept on, he knew that he was monstrous, but he kept on, and this would have never ended, if Dolores wouldn't have scaped.
Maybe that's why that's one of the most heartbreaking parts of the story. The criminal knew how sordidly he had ruined Dolores's live, but he kept on, telling himself that he loved her. He used this little child until she bled, he knew she hated him, and still tried to make himself and us believe that he was the misunderstood poet, the victim somehow. But still he doesn't lay flat, he is not just "the bad guy" he's a monster, but he has dimensions, a story to tell after and before, some humanness in him that still makes us feel sorry somehow, even if after we still feel sick of what he's done.
Lolita is a terrifying story, in which not only a child was kidnapped but failed by the system that was supposed to protect her, by the people around them who had to have suspission that something was off, and even by the legacy it left, since Lolita became both a sexual figure and a "romance" story, with people commenting on the novel as "a record of Nabokov's love affair with the romantic novel". For me, it's the confession of a monstrous passion from the point of view of the aggressor, one that's written trying to cover what happened and you still see through the lies, one with multidimensional characters and story that fills you with rage, disgust and helplessness, and a narrative that tries to trick you. And for that, it's a masterpiece of the English language, a gem that's hard to look at, but you still should, a classic of American literature.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Sexual violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Murder, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence
idontlikechocolate_'s review against another edition
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Violence