Take a photo of a barcode or cover
leilaghanbar 's review for:
Lolita
by Vladimir Nabokov
Lolita is the melancholy story of a paedophile and an assaulted child who grew up too fast.
It is very interesting, to read a book from the perspective of the villain. Reading through the book, I felt sick, sad, empathic, hopeless and at points, bored. Of course, Humber Humbert is a man with so many issues. He is obsessed with Dolores Haze and calls it love, as he sees it as love. He likes small children and imagines awful things. He assaults his beloved Lolita. But, especially at the beginning of the story, he knows it is wrong. Before Lolita, he watched "nymphets" knowing it is wrong and there is no way for him to find his way out. It is the time between the 1940s to 1950s. Even now with so much development in the science of psychology, no way of curing such a problem is found.
And then there is Dolly. The girl who acts like a woman. She repeats many times in the book that she has no consent over the relationship Humbert has with him; even though she is the one who "made a move" on him. Not that even with consent, she was at an age to be exposed to such things. She is a typical broken child. She is not a "child" but an adult trapped in a child's body yet she cannot grow up. A girl, like many others even now, who learned things too fast in the worst way possible.
Reading this book can be uncomfortable. the descriptions go on and on and Humbert's obsession with Lolita can go out of hand. There are many small details that turn out to be important at the end of the book, which made me go back and forth.
On a general note, I believe every woman should read this book. Every mother of a daughter should read to see how a sick man can look at their innocent little child. Since I started reading this book I have taken notice of how teenagers wear clothes. Of course in an ideal world, everyone should be able to wear what they desire. But I cannot stop thinking, what if a man with a maniac looks at my child and imagine unimaginable things? As a woman, we grow up with these looks and we get used to them. we learn to live by for we cannot change the world, but can make ourselves immune. But a child, is not yet immuned. And that terrifies me.
It is very interesting, to read a book from the perspective of the villain. Reading through the book, I felt sick, sad, empathic, hopeless and at points, bored. Of course, Humber Humbert is a man with so many issues. He is obsessed with Dolores Haze and calls it love, as he sees it as love. He likes small children and imagines awful things. He assaults his beloved Lolita. But, especially at the beginning of the story, he knows it is wrong. Before Lolita, he watched "nymphets" knowing it is wrong and there is no way for him to find his way out. It is the time between the 1940s to 1950s. Even now with so much development in the science of psychology, no way of curing such a problem is found.
And then there is Dolly. The girl who acts like a woman. She repeats many times in the book that she has no consent over the relationship Humbert has with him; even though she is the one who "made a move" on him. Not that even with consent, she was at an age to be exposed to such things. She is a typical broken child. She is not a "child" but an adult trapped in a child's body yet she cannot grow up. A girl, like many others even now, who learned things too fast in the worst way possible.
Reading this book can be uncomfortable. the descriptions go on and on and Humbert's obsession with Lolita can go out of hand. There are many small details that turn out to be important at the end of the book, which made me go back and forth.
On a general note, I believe every woman should read this book. Every mother of a daughter should read to see how a sick man can look at their innocent little child. Since I started reading this book I have taken notice of how teenagers wear clothes. Of course in an ideal world, everyone should be able to wear what they desire. But I cannot stop thinking, what if a man with a maniac looks at my child and imagine unimaginable things? As a woman, we grow up with these looks and we get used to them. we learn to live by for we cannot change the world, but can make ourselves immune. But a child, is not yet immuned. And that terrifies me.