Book: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Review of Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Lolita is the 1950s novel by Russian novelist, poet and short story writer, Vladimir Nabokov. The controversial novel has achieved notoriety due to the middle-aged literature professor protagonist, Humbert Humbert's obsession with twelve year old, Dolores Haze.

The introduction of this novel has become possibly my favourite introduction to any story. It is written in such a poetic and beautiful manner that I did not think it possible for such a tone to continue for the entire duration of the novel- but it did! The whole story flows from each image to the next. Nabokov writes in such a beautiful way. His descriptions are so vivid and his introductions to characters are so intimate. The story is well-crafted and thought-provoking too, it's not style over substance.
Something about this book is so addictive. There's something about the characters that you become very attached to. Something in his neologisms make this novel so charming.

I whole-heartedly recommend Lolita to anybody who is a fan of literature or poetry. This is definitely a bridge between the two.

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. Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, an initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns.

 Opening lines, chapter 1.