Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov

Title: Lolita

Author: Vladimir Nabokov

Year Published: 1955

Awards/Recognitions: Time's 100 Best English Language Novels

Being one of the most controversial books of the past century, Lolita created quite a huge stir especially in its portrayal of pedophilia between a handsome widow named Humbert Humbert and a 12-year old American girl named Dolores Haze, who was then given the nickname "Lolita". With such a huge buzz, that only meant one thing, and that is, I have to read it hoping that my 16-year old mind is mature enough to handle it.

The novel starts out with a pseudo-introduction by a certain John Ray, Jr., Ph.D., saying that Humbert's case would be a great example when studying psychology. This is very true for we see how Humbert started out from having a destroyed marriage, to fantasizing about little girls, and his outright denial of destroying Dolores' life even if he detests and mocks psychiatry throughout the novel. The book then moves on to Humbert Humbert's hypnotic narration of his life, a very interesting and messed-up life.

He talks about his life in Europe, his childhood, his failed marriage, and how he sits innocently on a park bench while watching preteen girls he calls "nymphets" play around him. He then talks about how he moves to America and finally becomes a boarder of a certain Charlotte Haze from where he meets the wonderful and later on pitiful Dolores. From there, he proceeds to his whirlwind conquest to obtain her and all of the "things" he did after that.

The plot isn't very complex and the pace slows down upon reaching Part Two, but this is one of the books which you don't really read to be blown away by the story, but the book which you read for the beauty of its writing. Vladmir Nabokov writes his prose so superbly that you can't resist but get caught up in Humbert's story and even get you to side with him in his conquest for Lolita. He is able to use the language to favor his side of the story and make it look as if he didn't do anything and that it was Dolores who was to blame for his actions. It is written so well that at times, one gets to believe him and sympathize with him despite the grim nature of his actions. It is also amazing how Nabokov manages to write seemingly explicit scenes very artfully and as the Introduction states, without using any foul four-letter word that people tend to throw around these days.

"Lolita" is a wonderful novel of so-called love and madness discussing a very sensitive and controversial topic. I highly recommend this book.

Rating: 9/10

Favorite Passage: "Unless it can be proven to me—to me as I am now, today, with my heart and my beard, and my putrefaction—that, in the infinite run it does not matter a jot that a North American girl child named Dolores Haze had been deprived of her childhood by a maniac, unless this can be proven (and if it can, life is a joke) I see nothing for the treatment of my misery but the melancholy and very local palliative of articulate art."

Edition: Vintage 50th Anniversary Edition (warning: if you are not versed with the French language, then do not get this edition for it doesn't have translations to the small French passages)

Length: A little over 300 pages, just right.

Time Read: 3 days