Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Lolita 

By Vladimir Nabokov 

Published by Vintage, 2010

Ebook Price: $9.99

Middle aged Humbert Humbert has a problem. Ever since a failed sexual encounter with a young girl named Annabel when he was a youth, he has been attracted to prepubescent girls. For some reason he just has that Annabel fixed in his mind as his feminine ideal, no matter how old he gets. Over the years he does have affairs with women his age and even gets married to see if that will make his abnormal urges go away. Nothing works. He still fantasizes about what he calls "nymphets". 

When Humbert moves into a boarding house to finish work on writing a book, he finds out his new landlady has a 12 year old daughter that is right up his alley. Her name is Dolores Haze but she goes by other nicknames: Dolly, Lo, Lola....and of course, Lolita. Here at last is a girl that will make all his fantasies come true! If only Lolita is willing, and if she is, how can they conceal it from her omnipresent mother? When Lolita's mom confesses her love for Humbert, our protagonist sees an easy way into Lo's pants! I mean, if he's her stepfather, it would be very easy to molest her, right?

Like most people, I have heard the basic plot of Lolita through the years. It's one of those books that you are aware of even though you probably do not know anyone that has actually read it. Like 1984 or Frankenstein, it's ingrained in the culture. I remember when I was young and there was that famous shooting with Amy Fisher where she was called the Long Island Lolita. Sting references it in his song "Don't Stand So Close to Me". And then there's the Loli culture in Japan. So I knew this book was going to be about some kind of affair between a young girl and a much older man. 

I guess I just wasn't prepared for it to be a 12 year old. I mean, essentially, this is a novel where the "hero" or antihero or whatever you want to call him, is a PEDOPHILE. Once I understood this, my reading sensibilities went a little haywire. I mean, as I am reading, I can't figure out what I'm supposed to be thinking. I had finished reading a biography of Hitler about 2 months ago and even HITLER was a more likeable person than Humbert! I guess I see child molestation as a worse crime than murder and starting a world war. 

Is the actual character Lolita slutty? Yes. Does that give a middle aged man the right to have carte blanche with her? No. I was constantly repulsed by the subject matter of the book and the protagonist. I mean, at one point Humbert daydreams about having kids with Lolita and then molesting THEM as well! 

To me, it's a bit crazy that this book ever got published in 1955, being as that it glorifies and often humorizes the situation. There's no way this book would ever see the light of the day if Nabokov had written it in 2020. The only time we hear the truth out of Humbert's mouth is every once and a while he will hear Lolita crying in the next room after one of their sexual encounters. Only in fleeting moments does he even understand the irreparable harm he is doing to her psyche. 

The thing that kept me reading till the end was the writing itself. I can't deny that Nabokov is a great stylist. I never got BORED with the text. I've read some of his earlier works and liked them a lot more. I have no idea why he chose to devote himself to this story and I didn't want to research a lot about the background of its writing because I thought I'd run across spoilers. 

I don't think this is one of the greatest books written in the 20th century as most elites of the literary world do. I don't even really know if it's a classic. Is it interesting? Is it a good book? I guess. 

My Grade: B