Title: Lolita

Author: Vladimir  

Genre: Classic Literature

Publisher: Vintage Books  

Format: Paperback

Pages: 317

Rating: 3/5 stars

Synopsis (Goodreads):

Awe and exhiliration–along with heartbreak and mordant wit–abound in Lolita, Nabokov’s most famous and controversial novel, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert’s obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America. Most of all, it is a meditation on love–love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.

Review:

Alright, so I have a ton of mixed feelings on this book so I hope I can get my thoughts down clearly enough.

The book is about a man’s love for a child. That’s right, a child. Which makes the main character, Humbert, a pedophile. The way he describes his love for a twelve year old, and then continues to attempt to have a relationship with her, was quite disturbing. He describes his attraction to young girls in an intricate way, calling them nymphets, and then continues to say that they lose their attraction the older they get. I could not get past this aspect of the book. I think this behaviour is sickening and should not be supported, and I felt quite gross reading this book.

But I can understand why some people would love this book as the writing is quite good. The description of Humbert’s feelings gives you an insight into the inner thoughts of a pedophile, which is interesting, but I found myself skimming a lot of the book because of how uncomfortable I felt! Unfortunately I feel like I couldn’t get into the writing of Nabokov due to the content of the book, but I can see where people are coming from when they say they enjoyed this book. I did not enjoy it, but I appreciate the author writing on a controversial issue!! If you’ve been wanting to read this book, then I suggest you do and form your own opinions on it!

Happy reading!