About this title: Vladimir Nabokov's notorious, hilarious erotic murder mystery takes the form of a monologue by his hero, Humbert Humbert, as he attempts to justify his love for and obsession with the barely adolescent Dolores Haze, known as Lolita. Humbert's cross-country flight with his adored nymphet ends with her betrayal of him with his rival, the evil Quilty, who pursues Lolita not out of love but out of lust and selfishness, and who functions as a kind of double for the more pure-hearted (if perverse) Humbert. Some critics see Humbert (who, like Nabokov, was a European émigré) and Lolita (the ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Berkley Books, New York
Date Published: 1969
Description: Good. No Jacket as Issued. Wear and creasing to the covers. Pages toning with age. Inner covers tanned. Otherwise a clean copy. 5th Berkley printing. read more
Description: Very Good. 0425099601 Condition: VERY GOOD. (Book may have one or a combination of the following characteristics: former library book, cover wear, name written inside cover, light underlining/highlighting, remainder mark, etc. Overall, the book is in solid shape. This is a blanket description. Please e us if you require a specific, detailed description of the book condition. We will typically respond within one week of your request). read more
Description: Good. 1984 print, red cover. Baba's Books has hundreds of plays in our shop! Former library paperback. No marks on text. Very well maintained. Extra library cover for protection! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Vintage Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1989
ISBN-13:9780679723165ISBN:0679723161
Description: Good. Cover has edgewear, bumping, marks, chipping, tape on cover-Cardboard reinforcement to covers at endpapers-Bumped pgs-Denting to book-Marks on edge-Lightly cracked hinges-Few marks on pgs-Spine slant. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1989-03-13
ISBN-13:9780679723165ISBN:0679723161
Description: Good. Cover has lite rubbing, marking, and mild corner/edge wear, with lite corner creases. Pages are clean and neat. Reader copy.1997 Edition, Softcover. (L) read more
"I feel like a mental midget in trying to explain my feelings about this book. I struggle to understand why it is considered such a classic piece of literature. Am I jaded by my own time? Have I heard too often the world "lolita" used in modern contexts to refer to young girls who are attractive to adult men who should know better? I had to delve into some literary criticism in order to help me understand, and I think what Lolita tries to do is tell a disguting story about a disgusting man using beautiful language. I think it also speaks to our modern day inclination to want to explain ourselves, as if we could absolve ourselves from the horrors of the crimes we commit if it is understood why we did it. Listening to the audiobook, although fabulously read by Jeremy Irons, probably meant that the language was lost on me for the most part. Instead I was left with the story of this self-described monster who destroys a child's life and feels remorse only at losing her. Perhaps revolutionary in its storytelling at the time it was published, but too gross to read today."
"You will fall in love with this book after the first chapter. Really after the first sentence, if you're like me. Wonderful read, fantastical subject, poetic, smooth. My favorite book of all time."
"This isn't the book many of us (US citizens in particular) think it is. The very term lolita didn't mean in the book what it has come to mean in the titles on dozens cheap porn flicks or one handed reading books.
This is a book that does require some work. If you take it up as a pleasant read, or (worse) because you have a paper due for lit class in a week, you'll have every reason to hate it. It isn't enough for me to read Lolita. I have to read about the book, too. There's just too much to simply read and go on. I couldn't let it rest without trying to see more (and I'm usually a very lazy reader.)
This is a deceptive book, as subtle and difficult as the narrator/protagonist. If it were just the pornography it is often depicted as being, it wouldn't be nearly as layered and complex as it is. In fact, I don't think sex is really very important as a whole for the story being told. I've read the novel twice and whatever sex was there is pretty much submerged by the rest of the book -- the language, most of all, and the creeping charm of Humbert Humbert, and the shuddery feeling that nothing can be trusted.
Don't rest after reading the text itself. Find an analysis somewhere, or check what Thomas C. Foster says about it in How to Read Novels Like a Professor. This book unfolds with just a little pressure into something complex, perversely beautiful, and constantly intriguing."
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