“Human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished masterpiece”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
Oh my god. This book gave me nightmares. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked this book up but it can be interpreted in so many different ways by different people.
Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov’s masterpiece (disturbing masterpiece; I’m calling it a masterpiece because of authors witty writing style), is the story of middle-aged Humbert Humbert and his tragic love affair with his 12-year-old, bubble-gum popping stepdaughter Dolores “Lolita” Haze. In his childhood, Humbert Humbert fell in love with Annabel Leigh of his age but after some time she died because of typhus. From that moment on (Humbert’s point of view), he is obsessed with “nymphets”, young girls (between 9 and 14) that he believes possess a certain sexual precociousness that sets them apart from their contemporaries. While travelling in America he ends up renting a room in the house of Charlotte Haze; mother of Lolita Haze. He found fulfilment in Lolita and got married to Widow Charlotte Haze just to be with Lolita. He then murdered his wife just to get close to Lolita. So he can be free to have sex with her twelve-year-old daughter.
Nabokov has written a brilliant and disturbing novel. I don’t understand why people reviewed it as “Love story” I’m shocked to read some of the reviews on Goodreads. Humberts narration about Lolita a 12-year-old girl seducing him is utterly disgusting. I feel that it is adults responsibility to not to take advantage of children. It is no exception that this novel is beautifully written but also no excuse to hate Humbert Humbert who repeatedly raped his daughter.
P.S: I HATED THIS BOOK TO THE CORE. I DONT THINK I CAN RATE THIS BOOK.
Title: Lolita
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
Genre: Morden Classic
Publisher: Penguin
Publication: 1995
My rating: None
Disclaimer: Library Copy. All opinions are my own.
mslazyboots 
I read this novel for a book club. About 2/3 of the readers reacted as you did. I thought it was more an exercise for Nabokov–could he put the reader inside the mind of a sociopath. Since it’s written in first person, there’s a challenge for the reader as to what to believe. This guy is perhaps the most unreliable narrator ever. Can we even believe that story of his first “lost love” or is just the narrator’s attempt at justifying his behavior? Does the prosecutor really exist? And so on through the story–what to believe, what is just attempts at self-justification. I agree with you that if taken literally,the story is revolting.
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Wow…this book sounds utterly disgusting. The worst part is that so many people like it, and even made a movie about it. There is no shortage of perverts in the world.
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…and there was a movie too based on the book.
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Movie is worse than the book
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