Lolita, 50th Anniversary Edition

Listal's Favorite Books Poll (Ongoing) (299 books items)

"9 Severin Severin (9)"

Ranking Every Book I've Ever Read/Reading List (173 books items)

"Put aside any preconceived notions you may have regarding the subject matter and experience "Lolita" as the high artistic achievement that is. At once a work of masterful prose and a powerful psychoanalysis, "Lolita" can be in parts tragic, funny, dark, and disturbing. With Humbert Humbert, Nabokov created one of the most terrifyingly real characters in fiction"

Favorite Novels (22 books items)

"1955"

My list of very favorite books (42 books items)

"“Nowadays you have to be a scientist if you want to be a killer. No, no, I was neither. Ladies and gentleman of the jury, the majority of sex offenders that hanker for some throbbing, sweet-moaning, physical but not necessarily coital, relation with a girl-child, are innocuous, inadequate, passive, timid strangers who merely ask the community to allow them to pursue their practically harmless, so-called aberrant behavior, their little hot wet private acts of sexual deviation without the police"

My 2011 in Books (20 books items)

"Finished on Apr 13 Lolita is a strange beast of a book. The conflicting emotions that ran through my mind make it impossible to place it any specific genre of novel. Mysteries are supposed to surprise the reader, comedies are supposed to delight the reader, dramas are supposed to move the reader and thrillers are supposed to get their pulse racing. Where does that put Lolita? It manages to move, disgust and make me giggle, sometimes all three in the same chapter. No wonder I was confused about "

“Lolita is a strange beast of a book. The conflicting emotions that ran through my mind make it impossible to place it any specific genre of novel. Mysteries are supposed to surprise the reader, comedies are supposed to delight the reader, dramas are supposed to move the reader and thrillers are supposed to get their pulse racing. Where does that put Lolita? It manages to move, disgust and make me giggle, sometimes all three in the same chapter. No wonder I was confused about how I felt for most of the book.

The second part of the book was somehow more tolerable than the first. The overarching themes of the story - obsession, desperation, isolation and the resulting fear and paranoia make for compelling reading. Compared to the second part, the first part was a confusing jumble of” read more

My favorite books (10 books items)

"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. ___________________ Lolita, luce della mia vita, fuoco dei miei lombi. Mio peccato, anima mia. Lo-li-ta: la punta dell"

TIME's 100 Greatest Novels: 1923 -- Present (100 books items)

""It had a troubled birth; Nabokov almost burned the manuscript of Lolita halfway through and its first publisher was a French pornographic press. But Lolita would go on to became a huge best-seller and the unlikeliest of American classics. Our hero, who goes by the self-mocking name of Humbert Humbert, is a pedophile. He is a highly cultured, endearingly ironic man, and he loathes himself about as much as a human being can, but he loves, and can only love, nubile young girls, whom he calls "nymp"

The Observer's The 100 Greatest Novels of All Time (100 books items)

"Humbert Humbert's obsession with Lolita is a tour de force of style and narrative."

Time's 100 Best English Novels (100 books items)

"It had a troubled birth; Nabokov almost burned the manuscript of Lolita halfway through and its first publisher was a French pornographic press. But Lolita would go on to became a huge best-seller and the unlikeliest of American classics. Our hero, who goes by the self-mocking name of Humbert Humbert, is a pedophile. He is a highly cultured, endearingly ironic man, and he loathes himself about as much as a human being can, but he loves, and can only love, nubile young girls, whom he calls "nymph"

Banned, Burned, Censored (94 books items)

"Banned as obscene in France (1956-1959), in England (1955-59), in Argentina (1959), and in New Zealand (1960). The South African Directorate of Publications announced on November 27, 1982, that Lolita has been taken off the banned list."

Lolita- A lavishly witty dark comedy.

“Lolita is a highly amusing tongue in cheek story of Humbert Humbert an English professor, who inconveniently still idolises his first childhood sweet heart, despite his pressing adult age.

It is surprisingly hard to dislike the hopeless villainous character of Humbert despite his twisted intentions to bring little Lolita into his clutches, as he becomes as much of a victim of his intellect and schemes as Lolita and her mother turn out to be.

The book beautifully captures the moods and tantrums of adolescence, whilst illustrating the extremes of human hopelessness when being at the mercy of our emotions and instinctive impulses.

The characters are so intricately crafted that it is possible to visualise Lolita’s every sullen expression and stomp of her heel, a” read more