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mayastone's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-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
0.25
Some quotes to consider:
After taking full advantage of her for the first time and notifying her of her mothers death, he plays mind games with her:
At the hotel we had separate rooms, but in the middle of the night she came sobbing into mine, and we made it up very gently. You see, she had nowhere else to go.
To put it in context, she is 12, she just found out that her mother is gone and a full grown man has violated her multiple times in a previous motel. She is scared of the police and this brute is the only adult that is around her.
Humbert explaining to Lolita that he was doing her a favour by abusing her:
I’ve a learned book here about young girls...the normal girl is usually extremely anxious to please her father. She feels in him the forerunner of the desired elusive male...The wise mother will encourage a companionship between father and daughter...Among Sicilians sexual relations between a father and a daughter are accepted as a matter of course, and a girl who participates in such relationships is not looked upon with disapproval by the society of which she is a part.
He then proceeds to scare her into believing that if she goes to the police he will be arrested and she will be shipped off to an abusive home for delinquent children.
Humbert reflecting on extending that same favour to his unborn child:
I must confess that depending on the condition of my glands and ganglia, I could switch in the corse of the same day from one pole of insanity to another – from the thought that around 1950 I would have to get rid somehow of a difficult adolescent whose magic nymphage had evaporated – to the thought that with patience and luck I might have her produce eventually a nymphet with my blood...a Lolita the Second, who would be eight or nine around 1960, when I would still be dans la force de l’age...salivating Dr.Humbert, practicing on supremely lovely Lolita the Third the art of being granddad.
Dolores is diagnosed with bronchitis:
At first “she ran a temperature” in American parlance, and I could not resist the exquisite caloricity of unexpected delights – Venus febriculosa [feverish Venus] – though it was a very languid Lolita that moaned and coughed and shivered in my embrace.
And then again, pages later:
Hysterical little nymphs might, I knew, run up all kinds of temperature – even exceeding a fatal count. And I would have given her a sip of spiced wine, and two aspirins, and kissed the fever away, if, upon examining her uvula, one of the gems of her body, I had not seen that it was burning red. I undressed her...Giving up all hope of intercourse, I wrapped her in a laprobe and carried her into the car.
It’s pretty clear that he raped her the first time and only stopped in the second instance when he realized that she needed to be hospitalized.
How anyone can read that and speak of this book being “well written” is beyond me. Equally disturbing is the number of works Nabokov wrote that featured this same thread.
Humbert is vile and Dolores is a poor child thrust into the hands of an abusive pervert due to circumstances outside of her control. Lolita (or sometimes Carmen) is the name her abuser gives her, Lolita is the tool he uses to justify his abuse, blaming her for being a nymphet and tempting him. Lolita is the equality he gives to his exploitation, claiming his abuse is a barter in which she is an equal opponent.
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.
Her name is Dolores. Humbert ruined her life when her mother gave him shelter and later married him. She was 12 when he first met her and started abusing her, 15 when she finally managed to give him the slip and 17 when she died.
In my opinion classifying this as a “Classic” legitimizes the subject matter, especially given the many 5 star reviews. We have already seen how the mind of a pervert works, even without encouragement they view everything as pertaining to their own sick pleasure. I also don’t think it was all that well-written. I was frequently tempted to stop reading and not just because of the subject matter. Also, other books didn’t given a voice to the worst of humanity.
Ultimately, the worst part of this book is that so many real children go through something of this fashion everyday. This is one story of many, some with even more tragic circumstances.
...and her sobs in the night – every night, every night – the moment I feigned sleep.
yet I insist that had not something within her been broken by me — not that I realized it then!— she would have had on the top of her perfect form the will to win,
I read it, I hated it. I can finally check this off my list.
After taking full advantage of her for the first time and notifying her of her mothers death, he plays mind games with her:
At the hotel we had separate rooms, but in the middle of the night she came sobbing into mine, and we made it up very gently. You see, she had nowhere else to go.
To put it in context, she is 12, she just found out that her mother is gone and a full grown man has violated her multiple times in a previous motel. She is scared of the police and this brute is the only adult that is around her.
Humbert explaining to Lolita that he was doing her a favour by abusing her:
I’ve a learned book here about young girls...the normal girl is usually extremely anxious to please her father. She feels in him the forerunner of the desired elusive male...The wise mother will encourage a companionship between father and daughter...Among Sicilians sexual relations between a father and a daughter are accepted as a matter of course, and a girl who participates in such relationships is not looked upon with disapproval by the society of which she is a part.
He then proceeds to scare her into believing that if she goes to the police he will be arrested and she will be shipped off to an abusive home for delinquent children.
Humbert reflecting on extending that same favour to his unborn child:
I must confess that depending on the condition of my glands and ganglia, I could switch in the corse of the same day from one pole of insanity to another – from the thought that around 1950 I would have to get rid somehow of a difficult adolescent whose magic nymphage had evaporated – to the thought that with patience and luck I might have her produce eventually a nymphet with my blood...a Lolita the Second, who would be eight or nine around 1960, when I would still be dans la force de l’age...salivating Dr.Humbert, practicing on supremely lovely Lolita the Third the art of being granddad.
Dolores is diagnosed with bronchitis:
At first “she ran a temperature” in American parlance, and I could not resist the exquisite caloricity of unexpected delights – Venus febriculosa [feverish Venus] – though it was a very languid Lolita that moaned and coughed and shivered in my embrace.
And then again, pages later:
Hysterical little nymphs might, I knew, run up all kinds of temperature – even exceeding a fatal count. And I would have given her a sip of spiced wine, and two aspirins, and kissed the fever away, if, upon examining her uvula, one of the gems of her body, I had not seen that it was burning red. I undressed her...Giving up all hope of intercourse, I wrapped her in a laprobe and carried her into the car.
It’s pretty clear that he raped her the first time and only stopped in the second instance when he realized that she needed to be hospitalized.
How anyone can read that and speak of this book being “well written” is beyond me. Equally disturbing is the number of works Nabokov wrote that featured this same thread.
Humbert is vile and Dolores is a poor child thrust into the hands of an abusive pervert due to circumstances outside of her control. Lolita (or sometimes Carmen) is the name her abuser gives her, Lolita is the tool he uses to justify his abuse, blaming her for being a nymphet and tempting him. Lolita is the equality he gives to his exploitation, claiming his abuse is a barter in which she is an equal opponent.
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.
Her name is Dolores. Humbert ruined her life when her mother gave him shelter and later married him. She was 12 when he first met her and started abusing her, 15 when she finally managed to give him the slip and 17 when she died.
In my opinion classifying this as a “Classic” legitimizes the subject matter, especially given the many 5 star reviews. We have already seen how the mind of a pervert works, even without encouragement they view everything as pertaining to their own sick pleasure. I also don’t think it was all that well-written. I was frequently tempted to stop reading and not just because of the subject matter. Also, other books didn’t given a voice to the worst of humanity.
Ultimately, the worst part of this book is that so many real children go through something of this fashion everyday. This is one story of many, some with even more tragic circumstances.
...and her sobs in the night – every night, every night – the moment I feigned sleep.
yet I insist that had not something within her been broken by me — not that I realized it then!— she would have had on the top of her perfect form the will to win,
I read it, I hated it. I can finally check this off my list.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual violence
joppen's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Read this (very slowly) after listening to Jamie Loftus’ incredible Lolita Podcast, which goes into depth about how this book has been dangerously misinterpreted and adapted.
Reading it for myself, I can’t for the life of me see how anyone could read this and interpret it as a love story. When I got the book I was shocked to see the insert sleeve, calling it “a love story almost shocking in its beauty and tenderness,” and a blurb on the back from says it’s the “only convincing love story of our century.” It’s not. It’s literally about a pedophile abducting and r*ping a 12-year old girl for years. The book is literally never ambiguous about that.
Horrible, despicable, unbelievable misinterpretations aside, this book is beautifully written and deeply harrowing. Nabakov’s prose is incredible especially because English isn’t even his first language?? The writing especially lends itself to the book’s unreliable narrator theme when Humbert is describing these horrible acts he commits, while simultaneously trying to construct poems and witticisms to appease the reader. It only adds to his despicable he is (to anyone with any sense of reading comprehension.)
Overall a very hard read but I’m glad I got through it. Gonna listen to the podcast again.
Reading it for myself, I can’t for the life of me see how anyone could read this and interpret it as a love story. When I got the book I was shocked to see the insert sleeve, calling it “a love story almost shocking in its beauty and tenderness,” and a blurb on the back from says it’s the “only convincing love story of our century.” It’s not. It’s literally about a pedophile abducting and r*ping a 12-year old girl for years. The book is literally never ambiguous about that.
Horrible, despicable, unbelievable misinterpretations aside, this book is beautifully written and deeply harrowing. Nabakov’s prose is incredible especially because English isn’t even his first language?? The writing especially lends itself to the book’s unreliable narrator theme when Humbert is describing these horrible acts he commits, while simultaneously trying to construct poems and witticisms to appease the reader. It only adds to his despicable he is (to anyone with any sense of reading comprehension.)
Overall a very hard read but I’m glad I got through it. Gonna listen to the podcast again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Minor: Gun violence and Death of parent
alekatja'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
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, and Trafficking
venusenvy's review against another edition
challenging
dark
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Car accident, Physical abuse, and Sexism
Minor: Antisemitism
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