Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

70 reviews

ihateketchup's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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

This book needs to be understood better by our generation, the author wrote this book so that we could easily identify people like Humbert. It is sad that a lot of people took this as a love story, it is not a love story in the slightest. This book is a psychological thriller that you find yourself interested in due to the narrator not being reliable, Humbert will contradict himself throughout the book, and you catch yourself being manipulated by Humbert as you are reading the book, the ability to write like that is incredibly impressive. Humbert is such a horrible character, the fact that you can find him trying to manipulate you after telling you all the disgusting things he did is a strange and scary feeling. This book shows you how easy it is for these people to get away with things like this, and shows how to spot them without even specifically saying it. The way the character of Dolores changes so quickly and abruptly makes it so we the readers, are unable to tell whether she changes due to puberty, age, her realizing she is being abused, Humbert being an unreliable narrator, or a mix of them. Having the readers question the authenticity and truthfulness of a fictional story is a rare thing to do.  There are so many hidden messages and double innuendos in the way Humbert writes, that having the annotations helps you truly appreciate the amount of dedication that was put into this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexism, Rape, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, Misogyny, Murder, and Kidnapping

novajhops's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Sexual assault, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Rape, and Stalking

Minor: Car accident

sennaje'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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Incest, Kidnapping, Mental illness, and Misogyny

theplaguedoctorreads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and 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.

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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

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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

mireanthony's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I’ve been meaning to read this book for so long that I’ve gone from being Dolores’ age to nearly being Humbert’s. This dredged up a lot of feelings for me, both cathartic and agonizing. I would not recommend this book casually but I did enjoy it and I think it is rare in deserving its status as a literary classic. Of particular note to me is Nabokov’s statement in his afterward, written a few years after Lolita was published, for its relevance to certain views on fiction today:

There are gentle souls who would pronounce Lolita meaningless because it does not teach them anything. I am neither a reader nor a writer of didactic fiction, and... Lolita has no moral in tow. For me a work of fiction exists only insofar as it affords me what I shall bluntly call aesthetic bliss, that is a sense of being somehow, somewhere, connected with other states of being where art (curiousity, tenderness, kindness, ecstasy) is the norm.

To be flippant for a moment, I feel like this book belongs beside Catcher In The Rye, “Rick and Morty”, Fight Club, etc. with “media that demonstrates good taste if you’re marginalized but a glaring red flag coming from a cishet white man”. I just feel like the fundamental problem of identifying with a character that’s meant to be condemned and seeing him as the hero of the piece is the problem here. But then, this isn’t a hot or a new take, as people have been misunderstanding this book since it was first published, if other media I’ve seen around it is any indication. 

Anyway. Great book, deserving of its recognition as a classic and a work of art, terrible villain as the protagonist, agonizing to read. My singular complaint is that the edition I have (second Vintage International edition, June 1997) does not have footnotes translating Nabokov’s usages of French. Pretentious dick (affectionate). 

My only justification for reviewing a piece of controversial classic literature is that I am very bored and so far this year reading and writing about it has been a small bright spot for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Incest, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Rape

laurenramsden99's review against another edition

challenging dark funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I'm doing my dissertation on this book and its presentation of Lolita as a character. It is really fascinating how years of stigma have turned this book into an infamous read, but it is really worth it if you love the main character being completely untrustworthy. It is also a great book to reflect on, you question at times why you are laughing at such a horrible situation. Nabokov is such a great writer and this is a classic I recommend to any fan of literature. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Misogyny, and Emotional abuse

theodoralang's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

first half was incredible, then I lost interest for nearly all of the second half, with only a few moments that perked me back up. Obviously a very dark and complex storyline, the character development of HH was fascinating while simultaneously renewing and grotesque. Very gross themes; the reader oscillates between understanding and disgust.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking

Moderate: Gun violence, Misogyny, Infidelity, and Drug abuse

ssgcedits's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad 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

3.0

By far, the most exquisite writing I ever came across, and, by far, the most disturbing thing I ever read. It is extremely triggering and I would not recommend it to anyone who's been through abuse.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Misogyny, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Confinement, Body shaming, Murder, Rape, and Stalking