Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov Summary and Reviews
|
Our Price: $25.33 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.11 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Lolita
Book Review: Read it before making up your mind about it.
Summary: 5 Stars
Psychological Journey through a man's broken mind, yes you do start to feel empathy for Humbert, however as he's an adult & educated and should know better. The book takes you into his reasoning and fight within himself. This is probably one of the most controversial books I've read and owned, I even find myself placing this book at the bottom of my bookshelf due to the fact that many people know the title and kind of what the book is about but not why it is good literature.Book Review: Selfishness and stupidity cause more pain than evil can
Summary: 5 Stars
In the field of erotic literature, this novel has probably touched the awareness of the public more than any other, to such an extent that the once innocuous name of Lolita has become another name for youthful feminine charm and sexuality, to put it mildly.
Those are the historical facts, but what of the novel's merits? What is most definitely is not is pornographic: it doesn't contain a word of even mildly bad language, nor is it a trashy series of sex scenes featuring a girl of that name. In fact - surprise, surprise if you've never read it - Lolita doesn't even contain a girl called Lolita.
Writing in the first person, Nabakov does not directly tell the story of his famous heroine, but that of Humbert Humbert, a man obsessed with the memory of his dead childhood girlfriend, Annabel, to such an extent that his life is dominated by her loss. As his teens pass, and then his twenties, he fails to mature beyond his loss. When he meets a girl of twelve, Dolores Haze, who resembles his lost love, he attempts to posses her, body and soul, and in his obsessed mind he re-names her "Lolita." The final result is that both he and Dolores are destroyed, along with several other characters.
Is it a sad story of an unfortunately obsessed man, who should perhaps be pitied as much as condemned? No, for there is more to it than that. Is it a simple story? No, for Nabakov is not a simple writer, telling a plain story of black versus white. If he were, then Dolores would be a naïve and innocent girl, and Humbert an absolute villain.
But Nabokov is not a limited moraliser, wagging a solemn preacher's finger at a wrong-doer seeking his evil way in a world of innocence. Instead he examines the complexities of both love and lust, for Humbert finds that his hidden, furtive desire has met its mate, as he discovers that Dolores has an open, natural tendency to depravity to match his. Moreover, most of the characters that the two are in contact with are flawed, and some are so self-deceiving and tacky that the reader may be drawn into preferring Humbert's admitted lechery, and the reader, not allowed to deal easily with absolutes in a simple situation of right and wrong, is made to journey in an intriguing world of comparisons.
Whereas Dolores's nature is a mixture of easily given love and defensive cynicism - she rapidly falls in love with the handsome, exotic Frenchman - Humbert is cowardly, conceited and stupid, with a talent for bungling everything he attempts, from emotional relationships to violent crime, a failing that he does not notice.
Failing also to see that Dolores is attempting to seduce him, he seeks to trick here into a physical intimacy that she would have awarded him willingly. As his stupidity becomes more apparent, so does his indifference to the well being of others, as he accepts marries a woman he detests to gain control of Dolores, and later contemplates murdering her.
But all his desperate, bungling manoeuvres fail, until to his surprise - Dolores casually offers herself to him, after revealing that she has already had a lover.
Technically this is the climax of the novel, and here Nabokov ends the first of the two books into which it is divided. Some critics say that the latter half is too long, and I agree with them, remarking however that it may merely seem to long, due to being the record of a highly unpleasant relationship.
When the death of her mother gives Humbert total control of Dolores, he has achieved his great ambition, but proves utterly incapable of living with his success. Dolores, sullen at the wandering life that they adopt, but entirely dependent on Humbert, strives not to regain her freedom, but for the two to lead some kind of stable life. But Humbert, living in a world of his own, composed of ecstasy and fear - he has gained Dolores, but is terrified of discovery - fails to listen to her, or realise that the actuality that he has gained is living Dolores, not imaginary Lolita.
Trapped in his conceited self-image - he is a pedantic scholar, who has produced no work of his own, but imagines himself a sophisticated artist - he fails to communicate with Dolores, or lower himself from his pretensions to her simpler, healthier attitude to life - "speak English!" as she says at one point - and he destroys what remains of her love for him.
As Dolores grows older she is able to gain more control over her affairs, and she tortures him as he has tortured her, and eventually escapes him. After several years of agonised search Humbert finds her again. Dolores, prematurely aged by hardship, is no longer the cute nymphet that he lusted for, but Humbert still loves her. He has finally achieved a maturity of sorts. He gives her a needed gift of cash, and the two part forever. Later both are destroyed by exterior forces.
However, Nabokov is not such a sentimentalist as to make Humbert's redemption complete, and it is by a further lunatic act that he causes his own end.
Graham Worthington, author, Wake of the Raven and Zorn: A Legend of the Days to Come
Book Review: Sensual...interesting...
Summary: 5 Stars
When I read this book, I was surprised by the authors voice. There was a delicate beat and melody to his words. His writing was beautiful, and I felt as though I could feel everything that was happening.
It is a bit graphic, so I would recommend this for a more mature audience..young adult(18+).
Book Review: The Ultimate Narcissist
Summary: 5 Stars
Narkissos saw his image reflected on the surface of a pond, fell madly in love with what he saw, dived into the pond to consummate the apparition and promptly turned into a flower (i.e., the narcissus). This is why we say the narcissistic personality is in love with himself. And in real life, he operates that way. Come on now. You know what we are talking about. We all know a smarty pants when we see one.
The narcissist is never wrong. He is so spoiled, he expects to be given whatever he wants no matter what it means to others. He can be demanding and indignant if he is not treated the way he thinks he deserves. He is arrogant, haughty, snobbish, and downright bitchy. Even when he knows he is being outrageously pretentious, grandiose and entitled, he expects admiration, attention, recognition and VIP treatment. That's just the way he is. But under all that puffery, he is a vulnerable child. His self-esteem is extremely fragile. Despite his fantasies, (Yes, dear reader, fantasy. Or, do you also believe Nabokov wrote Annabelle Lee and not Poe?), he actually does know that he is an overbearing little twit. Indeed, he has become an expert at practicing "extreme twitness" so as to test those around him. But, here's the rub. Just because he's a twit, does that also make him a pedophile? I don't think so.
Book Review: a poignant obsession
Summary: 4 Stars
A beautiful wording story about a tawdry relationship between a pedophile, Humbert and his nymphet step-daughter, Lolita.
Both the book and the film are viewed by Humbert's eyes, emotions, and perspectives.
Humbert, though after years of interactions with women, often times, surrenders himself in retrospects and imaginations, and his youthful nostalgia with his playmate, Annabel. He believes a girl's innocence and immaturity, differing from a woman who is socially experienced in well composing (my euphemism for acting) herself under public eyes, nevertheless, are a undressed beauty itself. And the first encounter with Lolita revives his dream, and also ferments a sequel of his childhood.
His character, regardless his age and the moral issues, represents a particular aspect in searching of genuineness. Yet, his obsession paralyzes his seeing Lolita as an individual, hence mistakes it to love. Tragically and ironically, the longer his time-spending with Lolita, the less left in her purity and innocence.