From the Bookshelf of Reading List Completists…

Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov

Start date: June 1, 2019

Finish date: June 30, 2019

Discussion: Group Reads

Why we're reading this: June 2019 Completist Selection
[close] June 2019 Completist Selection

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 98 topics — 1,581 comments total

Group Reads

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
By Matthew , Assistant List Master · 4 posts · 18 views

last updated Sep 18, 2022 11:34AM

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
By Matthew , Assistant List Master · 7 posts · 22 views

last updated Aug 31, 2022 01:49PM

showing 2 of 2 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Apr 29, 2023 Summer rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: a-z-of-classics-readalong

L'autre soir un air froid d'opиra m'alita: [The other night a cold opera tune put me to bed:]
Son fиlи--bien fol est qui s'y fie! [Crackled sound - who goes by it is crazy!]
Il neige, le dиcor s'иcroule, Lolita! [It's snowing. The scenery is collapsing, Lolita!]
Lolita, qu'ai-je fait de ta vie? [Lolita, what did I do with your life?]

Dying, dying, Lolita Haze,
Of hate and remorse, I'm dying.
And again my hairy fist I raise,
And again I hear you crying.

There is so much more to this novel than ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 02, 2025 archkull rated it did not like it · review of another edition

The most common defense of Lolita is that it is meant to be disturbing. That the novel does not glorify Humbert Humbert, but rather exposes him as the manipulative predator he is or that he wrote it to be an experience that forces the reader to reckon with language’s ability to distort and manipulate. I understand all of that.

I am not interested in morally policing literature itself, this is about execution of intent. My problem with Lolita is not that it is disturbing, but that I feel Lolita wa ...more

Like · see review

Dec 31, 2021 K rated it really liked it

Lolita - a name that draws intrigue, salaciousness, taboo. A book whose namesake became slang in the bigger Zeitgeist. A tale whose reputation precedes it. I was more self-conscious carrying around this than Alastair Crowley's Book of the Law, so infamous Lolita's reputation.

Lolita is a strange read. Its gorgeously written, describing the most horrible behaviors in the most beautiful ways. Nabokov is a true poet, creating both an ode and a defamation of a pervert, an expose on the psyche of the Lolita - a name that draws intrigue, salaciousness, taboo. A book whose namesake became slang in the bigger Zeitgeist. A tale whose reputation precedes it. I was more self-conscious carrying around this than Alastair Crowley's Book of the Law, so infamous Lolita's reputation.

Lolita is a strange read. Its gorgeously written, describing the most horrible behaviors in the most beautiful ways. Nabokov is a true poet, creating both an ode and a defamation of a pervert, an expose on the psyche of the vile and troubled yet cultured child-lover Humbert Humbert.

I think what I appreciate about this book is how it examines how complicated humans can be. Humbert Humbert may be a fictional character, but his sort exists frequently in the world. While we would be fortunate to avoid such people, inevitably being part of a broader society, we must learn to understand all different sorts of mindsets. It is human inclination to concentrate on the types of folks we do like and ignore that which is upsetting or incomprehensible.

Lolita makes us face this darkness, a Jungian shadow of the collective consciousness. We spend the duration of the book saddled in the mind of Humbert Humbert, and his recollections of his one sided love affair with a young girl, "Dolores", aka Lolita. We travel through his written memories, his history of pedophilia, sprung from his pre-adolescent love in his own youth, up into the grooming and abuse of the eponymous girl.

Part of the brilliance of this book though is that it is not all black and white, with the evil, overpowering man pitted against the weak and naive girl. In fact, the twist is that what Lolita lacks in age or other sorts of maturity, she compensates with a sexual prowress that the reader is surprised to find, -most- people presuming a girl of such a young age would be nothing but innocence.

At no point do you ever necessarily like Humbert Humbert, but you do see that even a pervert is a multi-faceted person. Maybe the kidnapper is also an excellent chess player. Maybe the intellectual has a sour moral core. Maybe one can be a polyglot but be a sexual brute. Maybe what people present as themselves as in public is far removed from the lack of integrity at home.

Humbert Humbert is both calculating and pathetic tragic figure. Lolita is both the girl next door and a femme fatale, a child and a woman.

I think reading this book is a sort of education, composed in an exceptional writing style, that would do many good to read, as it forces you to think about things that (hopefully) you would not consider otherwise. The only reason I gave it four out of five stars (and it was debated which way it would go), is that the story flows excellently in the first half, but the second half spends way too much time on road trips and does not feel as well paced as the prior half.

...more

Like · see review