Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Lolita

by Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita is one of the best-known novels of the 20th century: the controversial story of Humbert Humbert who falls in love with twelve year old Lolita, beautifully repackaged as part of the Penguin Essentials range.

'Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of my tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.'

Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged, frustrated college professor. In love with his landlady's twelve-year-old daughter Lolita, he'll do anything to possess her. Unable and unwilling to stop himself, he is prepared to commit any crime to get what he wants.

Is he in love or insane? A silver-tongued poet or a pervert? A tortured soul or a monster? Or is he all of these?

Reviewed by celinenyx on

4 of 5 stars

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From the first sentence, I loved the writing of Nabokov. His prose meanders and substitutes, deceives and describes, tempts and rejects. Purely on the word-level, I think this might be one of the best books I have ever read. Rarely am I this impressed by writing itself.

The story of Humbert Humbert the paedophile falling in love with Lolita is cloaked in this prose. If the reader isn't instantly repelled by the theme itself, the reader will get swept up in the strange and demented world of H.H. He is proud, selfish, clumsy and manipulative and an all-round terrible person. Lolita proves again that the main character of a book doesn't have to be likeable to be engaging.

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  • Started reading
  • 11 August, 2014: Finished reading
  • 11 August, 2014: Reviewed