Nabokov, I had heard the name but didn't know anything much of his work personally. Well know I have read his most famous work and I can see his reputation is well deserved. The fluid power of his prose is remarkable he can describe a year in a sentence, an hour in a paragraph, a minute in a page and all would be almost perfect.
Lolita is a dense novel both physically and mentally. I opened the first page of the book and was confronted by dense tiny script. Perhaps the miniscule font was why it took me longer to finish the book than I thought it would.
It was worth the extra three days reading.
At times funny, at times disturbing, always interesting Lolita is a 3 course meal of a read. The essay at the end of my edition written by Nabokov explained that this is not a 'literary novel'; authorial comparisons to Conrad undesired, metaphorical comparisons to Old Europe raping Young America were supposedly unfounded too. I have no such skill, nor literary pretension to draw these high browed conclusions. This means there will be from me no mention of the mauve-ness of the Europeans described, or the featurelessness of the American Heartlands Humbert Humbert travels through, none at all.
So Lolita, Dolores, Lolita the name now inspires so many films, news stories and articles. It has inspired an entire meme on the alluring nymph; that young girl so aware of her sexually captivating power. She is not much of a character, we never go past the 'typical' teenage mannerisms and even Humbert Humbert himself recognises that. Humbert is ignorant of Lolita's personality; their connection is purely physical; an old man sweating on top of his darling Dolores.
Humbert despite his grotesque paedophilia inspired in me a degree of pity, which I then felt guilty for, darn my Anglican ways. He is consumed by his love for the nymphets and only ever knows carnally, the dulcet Dolores of the honeyed limbs.
That this book is fiction doesn't do much to dilute the emotion I felt when reading it. The quiet disturbance at the purity of his love sullied by misdirection, what poor neuron malformed to wire this fellow so wrong? There is little sentiment to translate into sympathy for the mother and indeed Lolita herself, forgive me dear reader but could they not see the wolf in their midst?
Perhaps they couldn't see the danger, just as he couldn't bring himself to love a more age appropriate woman.
Lolita is a powerful book for the messages it conveys: lust, true blinding love and the intoxication of youth for those still in its bloom and those long past. I feel this is an important read for young adults; the keyword here is most definitely adults. The predatory nature of Humbert is subtle and insidious and applies to many of the institutions promising instant fame money and assorted goodies. Yes I know Nabokov didn't want this novel becoming a big, unwieldy, tiresome metaphor the predation of the young by the older but Lolita is too powerful a message to miss. I think Lolita and "darling father" wouldn't be too upset at that.
For more on Lolita and other controversial book check out the Logophile link in my signature
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