Lolita | Vladimir Nabokov | A Tribute to Aesthetics

Lolita | Vladimir Nabokov | Shockingly mesmerizing love story?

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Lolita

	Lolita Vladimir Nabokov Vintage, 1989 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 450 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Tribute to Aesthetics

The name Lolita has become synonymous in society with words like pedophilia and rape. It evokes sexual jokes as well as literary criticism. However, for those who truly understand literature and the masterful works of Vladimir Nabokov, this name cannot be replaced with any single word, but rather emits a conglomeration of ideas regarding the inner psychological workings of man and the resulting acts of violence. Nabokov's startling manipulation of language takes the reader through the harrowing physical and emotional journey of a man fervently obsessed with his stepdaughter, only to leave the reader as confused and questioning at the end as he was at the beginning of the journey. This controversial novel about Humbert Humbert's desire for young girls is not only an aesthetic contribution to all forms of literature around the world due to the sophistication of the prose, but also has the unique ability to force readers to empathize with the most questionable of characters.

The sophistication of Lolita lies in the fact that Nabokov does not apply a consistent style throughout the novel. Instead, he elects to use different language techniques all under the narration of the middle-aged and sexually frustrated Humbert. The erratic style is coupled with the unexpected interference of fate. For example, it is fateful that the house of the family he is originally meant to stay with when he first came to Ramsdale burned down, leaving him to board with the flirtatious Mrs. Haze and her "nymphet" daughter Dolores Haze, whom Humbert fondly refers to as Lolita. Nabokov also divides the novel into two parts, thereby providing a sanction between the passionate love that Humbert develops for Lolita and the paranoia and frustrations that she forces him to undergo. At the start of the journey they embark on across the continental United States, Humbert provides meticulous descriptions of the sights they have observed. However, the descriptions become less flowery as the two visit more and more places and they are soon reduced to incomplete sentences and terse phrases. The stream-of-consciousness style that Nabokov employs indicates that Humbert does not find the extensive road trip or the places they visit important and thus blurs them all together, but rather the fact that he is alone with Lolita. These various style techniques contribute to the overall understanding of the complex relationship between Humbert and Lolita and compel the reader to give avid attention to every detail in order to see the big picture.

Despite knowing fully well that Humbert Humbert is a man with a tendency for violence and pedophilia, Nabokov's poignant writing allows the reader to empathize with a man who is writing a confession from jail, where he is held for murder. The descriptions of Humbert's fascination with Lolita's body is not met with abhorrence, but rather appreciated for its artful depiction of childhood innocence. The novel also leaves out any crude sexual imagery, and instead focuses on the powerful emotion of desire. Humbert's love for Lolita is so strong that he willingly gives in to her demand for money and payment for any sexual favors. Unknowingly, he has become her slave despite his belief that she is under his control. The reader feels the strongest pity when Humbert goes on his crazed search for the mysterious Clare Quilty, a movie producer whose love for Lolita provokes the insane jealousy of Humbert. Throughout the novel, he is not portrayed as a typical maniacal pedophile, but rather a lover of beauty and perfection. It is out of this need to capture aesthetics like the youth of a beautiful girl that sympathizing with Humbert's plight becomes a natural thing to do.

The factor that makes Nabokov's Lolita one of the greatest novels of the 20th century is not only its profound meditation on obsessive love, but also its fantastic language. From the startling clues he leaves about fate to the Freudian stream-of-consciousness narration, it is obvious that Nabokov's goal is to leave the reader guessing from beginning to end. However, the reader must remember not to overanalyze the details of the places the two visit or the diary Humbert kept when he first moved in with the Hazes, because these could all be whimsical additives meant to distract the reader from unlocking the true secrets of the novel. In the end, whether it's a detective story involving murder and rape or a romance about madness and transformation, only Nabokov will truly know.

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Shockingly mesmerizing love story?

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov flirts with perversity, flaunts literary devices tastefully, evokes admiration and disgust in equal measure, and remains to be an extremely powerful potrayal of human emotion. Much has been said about underlying political metaphor in having Humbert as the european intellectual drifter "romancing" Lolita, his foster American child, and about the morality of the whole saga. With or without refering to these metaphors, the writing retains its charm for the engrossing word play.

There are no graphic details of sexual acts, and this is no easy read for those who consider pornography as literary composition. This is not a two cent sex thriller as sometimes the colloquial references make it seem. This is not about escapades of an old man travelling around the United States with a young nymphet. This is not even like Lady Chatterley's Lover, which sizzles with the passion of its protagonists. Lolita is about that love, that fire which consumes everyone that comes in contact with it. This is a feverish tale of a seemingly perverted Humbert sinking deeper and deeper into his fascination with nymphets.

The novel is rich in wit and satire, many descriptions of nature or Humbert's thoughts and feelings are sheer poetry, and the narration is both fascinating and intriguing. Intriguing in capturing an array of ideas and acts that are not only difficult to put on paper, but as history testifies, immediately make the author target of ridicule and condemnation. Like most others, I started reading the book with some prejudices and some precepts. Little did I know that my flight in a plane would show me the outer space: such is the power of the book.

Yes, the book lives at the very edge. Nabokov romances with the baseline. Small errors could have meant the ball landed out of the court, and the game wouldn't be as exciting as it is now. There is a suspense that thrives on our knowledge of HH's ideas and motives, and our knowledge that none of the other characters share the information the reader has. There is a sadness that is undercurrent of most love stories. There is a sense of disgust, for the whole idea of a twelve year old being ploughed by an old man is sickening to people of our generation and our education. Like Nabokov points out, till fifty years ago, a girl would start procreating as soon as she hit the teenage. There is an awe imposed on the reader by the way this taut story proceeds, the choice of sentences, dialogue, words reflects why Nabokov's Lolita occupies such a prominent place in the world literature.

Pray do read it. Read it piecemeal. It is a difficult but fascinating read. Recommended highly for everyone. It does not matter how you perceive Humbert or Lolita or anyone in the novel; you could run into similar characters on the street. Make allowances for HH's obsession, Lolita's nature, and then you will see Lolita is like a lotus blooming in the mud of passion and perversity. To pick this flower, you need to wade though the mud, and I believe it will be worth the effort. Reading this novel, like the story it tells, is full of torment. It will test and tease your own thoughts about morality, sexuality, sensuality and love. Like every great book, you will be forced into understanding your own self, as well as everyone around you better. Shocking, but mesmerizing tale. Must read.

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The great American novel?

This book belongs on the bookshelf next to Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn, and The Great Gatsby in terms of great American novels. No need to tread over the plot... that's been taken care of by previous reviewers. Where this book excels is Nabokov's use of wordplay, the narrator's self-deprecating humor, pacing, and expanse. It's literature, a travelogue, and a mystery all rolled into one. And, yes, fifty years after its initial publication, it continues to shock. But no serious reader of American literature should miss this wonderful journey.

I thought his book was amazing.

Notwithstanding its tabooed subject matter, Nabokov's ability at capturing the intensity of longing, despair, passion and rapture is enthralling. The story in many respects isn't an easy read. The extensive vocabulary and obscure references insure that there was much I probably missed. But it did not take away from the awe of Vladimir Nabokov's incredible mastery of the English language along with sprinklings of French and German as far as I could decipher.

Story-wise, the cold and calculated way Humbert Humbert goes about seducing 12-year-old Dolores is difficult to endure especially as the reader is privy to every manner of plan and execution. Of course as this is almost entirely from Humbert's perspective, the reader is only able to glean Lolita, his private name for her, and other characters from that perspective notwithstanding his own scrupulous attempt at objectivity. From this perspective we discover a Lolita in many ways a typical 12- year-old of the times yet with a beguiling precociousness. She's brash and bratty and not shy about her sexuality, burgeoning though it may be. There is Dolores' mother Charlotte, needy and in a hateful rivalry with her daughter for Humbert's affections. Humbert himself is erudite, superior and routinely disdainful of all who pass his way. Yet under the spell of his own longing and desire for Lolita, becomes the very entity he scorns.

What stands out and continues to draw me to this work is the depths of emotion Humbert subjects himself to albeit much of it through his obsession for Lolita. It made me question the idea of love and what it is supposed to mean. It's clear that Humbert's feelings for Lolita are profound but one could not but question whether this love is centered more on an ideal Lolita rather than the real life Dolores. His ongoing obsession with "nymphs" and "girl children" finally finds release in the ideal form, in many ways, of Dolores Haze. Ideal because she was a willing participant at least initially and fit the criteria of being a young girl, an ideal nymphet in that regard. Yet this nymphet turns out to also be impudent, petulant with banal tastes, not exactly a fantasy combination for the highbrow Humbert. Yet his declarations of love and devotion is always steadfast and much to his surprise goes on to extend past her "nymphage" years. At the end, I was left with the unsettling thought that perverted and unseemly though it may be perhaps it could be qualified as love. Not the not-so-common pure and selfless kind but the sullied and soiled kind where self-interest, manipulation and in Humbert's case ultimately murder is par for the course.

What is even more fascinating about this book is the twist taken by Nabalov with the character of Lolita. By taking the child abuse scenario in a different direction and not making her the frightened, quivering Little Red Riding Hood to Humbert's Big Bad Wolf. Nabokov still does a remarkable job of keeping her as a believable young girl, not totally innocent but clearly not grown-up either. He is skillful at interweaving her precociousness with an obvious emotional immaturity. At age 12 in the early 1950s, she is knowledgeable and experienced in the ways of sex but in a childishly oblivious way. She is aware of the concept of incest, breezily admits to having sex at camp with her and another girl taking turns with a teen-aged boy and is the one to initiate the first sexual contact with Humbert whom she assumes is clueless about this activity which she summarizes as being "rather fun" and "good for the complexion." She then has no compunction about needling him, calling him a "dirty old man" and slyly telling him that she's going to call the cops. During their travels, she has a lot of say in where they will eat, what they will do, where they will stay. Granted this more than likely stems from Humbert's desire to appease Lolita in Humbert's words "from kiss to kiss." But through out it can be sometimes difficult to discern where the balance of power really does fall. It is interesting though the fact that despite Dolores' growing ambivalence if not outright distaste for Humbert and his foppish ways she continues the sexual relationship without much fuss considering she has no problem heartily refusing other demands made by Humbert such as reading more books, despite his pleas and threats. Perhaps sex does not have significance for Dolores one way or the other. Perhaps she knows it's a powerful leverage with Humbert although it wasn't until later on that she appears to actually start using it as such and even then still in a limited manner. The fact that everything is pretty much related from Humbert's perspective had me at times, longing for a bit more insight into Dolores' own inner thoughts.

There really is a lot to this book and it would take another entire book to analyze it all. The subject of the story may be taboo but it is done in what I think is a very tasteful and non-offensive manner. It delves into so much more than a pedophile's lust for a young girl that it's hard to even know where to start. But it definitely got me thinking not just about the complexity of the human experience but the skill that it takes as a writer to express it in such an eloquent and exceptional way. As I got this as an audio-cassette, hearing Jeremy Iron and his way of bringing to life Nabokov's words allowed me a means of appreciating it all the more so. His ability to infuse the book with the sarcasm, humour, despair and vulnerability so prevalent in the book makes the writing that much more memorable.

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Wow!

If you're expecting a book about a dirty old man, you're wrong. Of course, that's what it's about, but it's really a beautiful love story between a young, manipulative girl and her manic-depressive step-father. It's the most amazing usage of the English language since Shakespeare, and the best modern English-language novel ever.

Let me quote the first 2 paragraphs of the novel:

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.

"She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita."

That alone should make you want to rush out and read the book. There's not much more I can add.

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