Lolita

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Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov

Literature

Jul 30, 2018

In April 1947, Nabokov wrote to a friend that he was at work on “a short novel about a man who liked little girls.” Eight years later, after several American publishers had turned it down, that no-longer-short novel was published in Paris to international acclaim—and outrage. For Lolita isn’t about a man who just “liked” young girls: It is, in fact, about a thirty-seven-year-old named Humbert Humbert who has an extended sexual relationship with a twelve-year-old named Dolores Haze. (“She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.”) Put like this, the story sounds repellent. And yet Lolita has not only survived the outrage and sold many millions of copies but has also established itself as one of the most lavishly praised literary works of the twentieth century.

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Kathryn McBarron

Feb 20, 2019

Never has such a uncomfortable topic been described so eloquently.

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Ronald

Apr 7, 2019

A stroke of genius - makes one see the human in a monstrous sexual predator.

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Dave Agrati

Apr 9, 2020

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Jane Huttner

May 17, 2020

This was well written, but the topic was very uncomfortable to read about. But I can see he fell in love for Dolores because she reminded him of his young love Annabel who died.

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