Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.

I just finished reading this last night, and man is it an amazing book.

First off, it is beautifully written. I don't know about Nabokov's usual style because I haven't read his other books, but the style is just so awesome— lightly riddled with allusions and factoids and references to all the cheap little motels and attractions and things one can find across the US; puns and wordplay casually scattered everywhere you look. I bet I'd be able to appreciate it even more if I could understand French—Humbert Humbert Humbert himself is an uppity snob of French origin, so he feels the need to drop his language everywhere.

Second off, I just love the dual nature of all the characters in this work—not just Humbert, but everyone, even Dolores. Humbert's obviously a messed up dude, but he shows remorse for what he's done to both Dolores and Quilty. Dolores may have also manipulated Humbert a little, but either she was just kidding and did not know what she was doing, or Humbert was exaggerating or twisting her actions to justify his exploits, or both.

It's just a fantastic book.

Oh by the way, Lolita is part of the inspiration for The Exile Of Borghild Brynwulfing.

Nabakov's usual style is...does he even have one? The only other books by him I've read have all had very unique styles of prose too. Pale Fire in particular is unique.

READ IT.

It's the most awesome thing ever. A fake commentary about a fake poem complete with insane ramblings and political intrigue in said commentary. You can also read it however you want order wise.

edited 6th Aug '11 5:14:47 PM by Aondeug

its one of my favorite books of all time
you gotta love the opening lines and the dark humor

I need to read this sometime. I've only read Pale Fire (which, as Aon said, is great) and Invitation to a Beheading which was...well...weird, but also beautifully written.

edited 6th Aug '11 7:23:30 PM by ImipolexG

I just finished reading Pnin, and I've never been so concerned about whether a bowl was going to break or not. It didn't, but when I thought it had I started to cry.

Didn't we have a Vladimir Nabokov thread? It might have been eaten by the archive monster.

Lolita was the first book by Nabokov I read. I've also read King, Queen, Knave, Pale Fire and Bend Sinister, the last quite recently. There is something about Nabokov's prose which I find deliciously intoxicating. It's so beautiful and crystalline, and he has an amazing ability to summon up images.

I'm going to start this book Monday, I've heard good things about it so I am excited.

It'd be great if you could all add to the page for it. It has such a tiny page for such an influential work :|

edited 21st Aug '11 4:20:59 AM by CyganAngel

I'll try, though in preparation for school, I don't want to be in Trope Mode.

I have been watching some videos of Nabokov interviews on youtube. Someone complained to me that he sounds disappointingly pretentious but I think it's mainly just his accent (and it seems he was also cripplingly afraid of giving unprepared answers so all these videos were staged with his answers prepared ahead of time).

Not only is the book a masterpiece, but it was written in the man's second language entirely on index cards.

Was it now?

Yep. Nabokov composed most of his novels on index cards. The guy's poor wife had to help put them in order.

I thought that was a Pale Fire reference.

I never did get the chance to finish the book (got sidetracked, as happens sometimes), but I have seen Stanley Kubrick's version of it.

On another note, I once had a creative-writing teacher who name-drops it as the best English-language novel of the 20th century.

It took me two tries to get through this book. I could not get through the dense prose; I had trouble following what happened. Humbert definitely had issues.

He was a fucking pedophile, of course he had issues.

edited 31st Aug '11 7:17:37 PM by annebeeche

I think he meant in addition to that.

Yeah, there's also his blatant elitism and injust jealousy, not to mention that if you look closely, you'll see that his idea of a perfect "nymphet" is actually a girl who's been sexually abused. D:

And even if you take all of that away, he's still a douche.

Is there a Nabokov character who has both had sex during the course of the book and is not a douchebag?

EDIT: Oh, during the course of the book... none of them.

edited 1st Sep '11 7:03:02 PM by Loid

I wonder how nabakov would react to his masterwork's anime legacy.

I remember reading that book at age fourteen. I don't want to talk about my experience reading it back then. Old me was Completely Missing The Point, and got completely and utterly confused at about the point where Humbert and Lolita do... something... for the first time... The prose got really weird at that point, and my brain sort of shut down, so I gave up. The next day, I tried to read Ulysses.

Yeah, I was even more of a pretentious pedant back then. I guess I'll have to read this eventually.

EDIT:Oh, according to Build Your Own Boat, looks like young me wasn't so wrong after all, I was supposed to fall for that and empathize with the guy, only to be punched in the gut by the twist. Too bad I never got there.

edited 19th Oct '11 9:37:28 AM by PacificState

I read this, then saw the 1997 movie. It was weird, but interesting how the two works were so completely different, yet the same story.

In the book, I got the feeling that Humbert was either trying to minimize the horribleness of what he did or outright lying about it. The movie made it look like Lo incited it, but it's from Humbert's point of view, so it could still be all a lie. Now that I think about it, it came across as Humbert pulling out all the stops to make it seem like he was the completely innocent one, except you can't forget that he is a pedophile, so he clearly isn't innocent at all. The movie added a layer of desperation to cover up his crimes, in my opinion.

Either way, Lo probably didn't know what she was doing and can't take any of the blame, no matter what the narrator wants the audience (the jury) to think.

I thought it was a good book (and a good movie). It really shows the lengths to which a person may go in order to justify his misdeeds and the nature of manipulative relationships. I saw the Kubrick version, too, but it was a long time ago, so I don't remember it as well.

edited 16th Jan '12 7:09:12 PM by BlackElephant