Reviews

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

bookbunny00's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Rape

heavyisthehead's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

jingham's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

dummyhuey's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

renreads2much's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

4.25

This book was so dark and disgusting it literally took me months to get through. It's a hard read, but its definitely worth trudging through and digesting. Nabokov is a great story teller, he has an amazing way of putting you in the character's mind. Which in this case with Humbert Humbert, is a horrifying experience. But one that is all too real. And disgustingly, somehow makes you feel a small sense of understanding and pity.  The whole book feels like a crescendo, building up to the downfall of a man who was already at his lowest. 

(Side note, I really like how the last few chapters are written.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia and Rape

natewolf's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

valeria1988's review against another edition

3.0

Es una lectura incómoda, perturbadora, difícil de leer, y directamente en algunos momentos me causó rechazo. Es pedofilia escrita bajos los ojos del mismo pedófilo. Ahora bien, es un historia intrigante y magistralmente bien escrita, llena de singulares referencias y un exquisito vocabulario en un contexto que la hace perfecta idea cinematográfica.
Sólo 3 estrellas.

leonard_gaya's review against another edition

4.0

Probably everyone recalls that iconic movie poster with a blond teenager peering above her heart-shaped sunglasses, a red lollipop on the tip of her tongue. This picture is directly inspired by a line in Nabokov’s novel, where middle-aged Humbert-Humbert sees “his Lolita” for the very first time. What follows is a tender, sad, and seemingly chaste love story between a man in his forties and (in his own words) a nymphette.

Lolita is a novel in the form of a confession. It is unclear throughout H.H’s story precisely what crime he has been convicted with. Paedophilia with Lolita? Paedophilia with another girl? The murder of his wife (Lolita’s mother)? The murder of the mysterious Clare Quilty? The narrator leaves clues, but the suspense remains. What troubles him the most are not the charges against him but the guilt stemming from his past desire, love, lust, and jealousy towards his stepdaughter. This feeling of inner conflict tints almost everything in this book.

Lolita is also a great road-novel, a painting of the American landscape and (not without some sarcasm) of the American way of life, as depicted by a foreigner who drops a French line now and then. This aspect of Nabokov’s novel is perhaps the most delicate and personal. And Humbert’s passion for Lolita’s young body is probably a metaphor of the love of an old European for a rolling young country.

It is well known that, despite his scandalous subject (the [a:Marquis de Sade|2885224|Marquis de Sade|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1388547600p2/2885224.jpg] would have produced an altogether different treatment of it), Lolita is in no way an erotic novel — nor is Sacher-Masoch’s [b:Venus in Furs|427354|Venus in Furs|Leopold von Sacher-Masoch|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1542732039l/427354._SY75_.jpg|2469460] a book about kinky sex. It is the novel of an aesthete, fascinated by untouched beauty, by virgin landscapes, and by a language (English) for him to reveal in its unique musicality.

elizabethlo's review against another edition

I thought I would be able to stomach this, but I couldn't. Very upsetting, extremely difficult to get through.

shii11's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

4.5