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Lolita -the novel

The Shelley Winters thread made me think of this.

Is it worth reading? Or too creepy? Or boring?

And why does this story get such a free pass?

by Anonymousreply 17July 9, 2025 2:46 AM

Probably a lot of people haven't read it, these days. I read it years ago because I liked the movie. It's very depressing, overall. I have no idea why or if it gets a "free pass." I don't think it's condoning the behavior.

by Anonymousreply 1July 8, 2025 5:12 PM

He licks a 14-year-old girl’s asshole.

by Anonymousreply 2July 8, 2025 6:22 PM

It’s worth reading, but bears little resemblance to the movie when it comes to Huppert and Lo.

He’s a despicable rapist and kidnapper. She didn’t “lead him into it.”

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by Anonymousreply 3July 8, 2025 6:46 PM

R3 Humbert

by Anonymousreply 4July 8, 2025 6:49 PM

I mean, few prose stylists in English can match Nabokov:

[quote]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.

by Anonymousreply 5July 8, 2025 6:49 PM

I do wonder what kind of a sick fuck Nabokov was to have wanted to write that kind of thing.

by Anonymousreply 6July 8, 2025 6:53 PM

It’s a satire about America and has little to do with sex. I barely remember any descriptions of actual sex in the book. The writing is incredible so stupid people should pass.

by Anonymousreply 7July 8, 2025 7:30 PM

It's creepy and gross.

The only thing remarkable about it is that Nabokov's first language wasn't English.

by Anonymousreply 8July 8, 2025 10:58 PM

R7 thank you. As for the rest of you, it’s a case of pearls before swine. It’s a work of art/literature, not an advertisement or marketing strategy for hebephelia.

by Anonymousreply 9July 8, 2025 11:27 PM

I am not educated enough to understand the symbolism

by Anonymousreply 10July 9, 2025 2:04 AM

Salacious but boring.

by Anonymousreply 11July 9, 2025 2:05 AM

I went to Cornell and had a class in Goldwin Smith Hall in the same classroom in which Nabokov taught, in the 1950s, but I am swine, according to the very superior people here.

by Anonymousreply 12July 9, 2025 2:16 AM

It's all that it's said to be and more. It's the Great American Novel, ironically written by a Russian.

Also, what Hubert does isn't romanticized like it is in the film adaptions. It's very blatantly sexual abuse. So just a heads up if you dont have a strong stomach for that kind of things.

by Anonymousreply 13July 9, 2025 2:21 AM

It's HUMBERT.

by Anonymousreply 14July 9, 2025 2:24 AM

Whatever R14...I'm sleepy

by Anonymousreply 15July 9, 2025 2:24 AM

I want to HIGHLY RECOMMEND the audiobook reading of Nabokov's Lolita by Jeremy Irons

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by Anonymousreply 16July 9, 2025 2:26 AM

You have SPOKEN.

by Anonymousreply 17July 9, 2025 2:46 AM
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