Review: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

A year after I got it from the bookstore, two weeks ago, I only started reading Lolita. I got this book because I was interested in it after listening to Lana Del Rey's Lolita and knowing that LDR got her inspiration after reading this book.

Lo-lee-ta. I imagine, Humbert Humbert (H.H), the main character and narrator of the book, pronounced the name of Lolita with the tip of his tongue and lightness applied.

For your information, this story is about a paedophile, Humbert Humbert falling madly and hopelessly in love with a 12 y/o girl, Dolores Haze. Lolita is a nickname H.H. created for Dolores. To get closer to her, he married Dolores/Lolita's mother, Charlotte Haze but shortly, she died in a brutal car accident. Ever since, H.H. adopted Lolita and brought her to travel around the North America (He must be a really rich man since he has travelled and stayed in 300 plus motels in the course of two years, not forgetting the gifts and clothes he gave to Lolita).

The story's development is very slow and there are many slight interruptions. Thus, it can get really long-winded. Plus, the book is mostly H.H.'s narrative, talking about H.H.'s point of view and feelings. So, if you like books with many narrative and less conversation, this shall be your pick.

I find it quite hard to read and understand certain sentence constructions and paragraphs. I'm not surprised by it because it is a classic. To be honest, the whole storyline could only be written in a 150 pages book without those extra narratives.

However, the narratives are important as those are the ones which made readers to see what kind of person H.H. is. Through his point of view, he is a vain, selfish and hateful person. He described Dolores/Lolita as a very rude, nasty and vulgar girl.

To be honest, I find it so hard to imagine a 37/38 y/o man falling so madly in love with a 12 y/o nymphet. If the relationship is not based on incest or paedophile setting, it is going to be a sad story where there no mutual love and feelings are shared. It is only a story about the love from a selfish elder man given to a young and naive prostitute, where the former using gifts and monies to bribe the latter in return of sexual intercourse.

It is important to note that, Lolita herself isn't 'pure' too. She was the one who seduced H.H. and exploited him. In turn, H.H. became cunning by tricking Lolita when he got so attached to and possessive of her.

My favourite part of the book is where H.H. travelled 800 miles away from New York to search for his dear Lolita after she seeked for his help (This happened after Lolita ran away from him for three years). He begged and begged her to come with him to have a good life even though she has become pregnant, no longer a nymphet; he still desires her after all. He forgives her running away.

At the end of the story, you can tell H.H.'s hopelessness at the end of the story: he asked for the readers to understand his guilt of raping and robbing Lolita her childhood. I am afraid that, after reading this, reader will find some sympathy for what H.H. has done.

Lastly, despite there is no moral can be deduced from the story, it is indeed a masterpiece of V.N. as he could write the story so erotically and with such precision.