Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - Lolita

Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

606 reviews

sophiaboninsegna's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

ed_moore's review against another edition

4.75

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

“That little girl with her seaside limbs and ardent tongue haunted me ever since - until the last, twenty four years later, I broke her spell by incarnating her in another”

It’s hard to know where to begin with ‘Lolita’, a notoriously tabooed book but also in this regards so deeply misunderstood by its readership, or more likely supposed readership who hear about it but fail to approach it and realise what it truly is. Yes, ‘Lolita’ is about a pedophile and his relationship with a twelve year old girl, and in so many places and so many scenes this book is utterly sickening and so discomforting, yet at the same time it is one of the most poetic and well written books I have read. What right does a book about pedophilia have to this claim. In Humbert Humbert’s words “You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style.”

What makes this book so realistic is how painfully aware Humbert is in his own writings that what he is doing is deeply wrong, and yet his futile attempts to justify his actions as human nature, or blaming Lolita as a temptress always seem to prevail. I can thankfully say at no point did I find myself rooting for him as a protagonist though, and most of his remarks I recognised as being from an integrally unreliable narrative perspective.

The afterword and Nabokov’s comments on his book are integral for understanding its true purpose in writing. I was amused by his comments on the overanalysing of literary works, especially as he wrote a work so aware of its Freudian readings that it mentions psychoanalysis on numerous occasions. Finishing ‘Lolita’ has had a profound effect on me that I can’t quite put into words, on the one hand I am disgusted and on the other I am in awe. I will leave on a note from both the foreword and afterword, spelling out the intentions of this work: “Lolita should make all of us - parents, social workers, educators - apply ourselves with still greater vigilance and vision to the task of bringing up a better generation in a safer world”

Content Warnings

ethanchung's review against another edition

4.25

dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

nutrig's review against another edition

4.0

dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

moisesadame's review against another edition

5.0

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

baggi's review against another edition

2.75

challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

kalimuniz's review against another edition

4.25

dark sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

An inside look at the mind of a perverted man who preys on a young helpless child. Lolita is a fictional idea and fetish in Humbert’s mind and he fails to see her as the human being she really is. Dolores Haze overcomes his possessiveness and escapes from the fantasy and illusions of males disguising “love” in the form of sexualization, abuse, and manipulative power. This is the story of a girl who barely survived under the eyes of an unreliable narrator who casts his fantasy upon Dolores as “Romance” and exposing himself towards the end with the conclusion that he is sick, pedophilic, and has failed Dolores as a parental figure in her life that robbed her of her childhood. This book is not romance. It is meant to be seen through the eyes of a manipulator how he covers his tracks and re-writes his delusions and reality to prevent himself from confronting the monster he really is. In other words: how victim-blaming works and how silenced victims of sexual abuse and child exploitation are often overlooked.

Content Warnings