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 ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! 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
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: International Collectors Library, Garden City, NY, U.S.A.
Description: Very Good. No Dust Jacket as Issued. Classics-Rare/Fine. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Minimal edge-wear, slight rubbing to head and tail of spine, pages are clean and tightly bound, no interior markings of any kind. read more
"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."
"A day after putting down "Lolita," I still find myself turning it over and over in my head, trying to get at what was behind Nabokov's tale of pedophilia and betrayal. Clearly it is allegory, but for what, I have not yet decided, and it also can be understood at its surface level and still make a profound statement. I think I'll leave a deeper foray into those matters for my second, third, fourth, and fifth readings of this book, for I am sure I will revisit this work of art time and again. Nabokov's prose is some of the most decadent, opulent stuff I have encountered. It is of the rose and diamond dripping, waterfall spraying, aurora borealis variety. There were several multiple-page passages describing travels through America which were so utterly beautiful that I reread them a second or third time before moving on. Humbert Humbert is one of the most effective monsters in literature, because "Lolita" is his platform, and he gets the entire span of the book to strive for and gain our sympathy despite the fact that we know how terrible a villain he is. He is torn between his desire to consume Lolita, and to possess her, but once something is utterly consumed, is there anything left to possess? This book is obviously a classic, one that should be read at least once by everyone (of appropriate age, of course)."
"Thoughts of Poe's famed lyric, Annabel Lee, come to mind (as Nabokov intended) when perusing the first page of this masterful work. Somehow the spin Nabokov puts on the poem seems all to obvious, and yet would not have been easily illuminated had he not created Humbert's character. Humbert Humbert is a man with a strong memory. The passions of his richly wonder-full adolescence have created a working paradigm for all future romantic encounters. Because his boyhood lover died in but the first blossoming of her youth, he must compensate for this unfinished affair by continuing where he left off with another girl. Finally, after many years of studious occupation and refinement of his idea of the sublime, he meets Lolita, a girl that seems to be a perfect piece for superimposition on his desires, but is far from ideality. Nabokov marks in a brilliant corsucation that "there is nothing more atrociously cruel than an adored child." Lolita truly fulfills this expression as she torments Humbert by playing upon his enslavement by her. Although unquestionably a pedophile in any modern sense, Humbert does not fail to draw sympathy to his character as he aims and misses in his pursuit of realizing the sublime dream that has become a love affair with Lolita. This is truly a remarkable work and it is obvious that Nabokov, a literary master of three languages, subjected himself to the same meticulous criticism in the creation of his own works that he did when evaluating the works of others. Uncomfortable though the experience is due to subect matter of the book, it is nearly impossible to put down. Nabokov has single-handedly reinvented literary love in this masterpiece."
New York Times Book Review, 08/17/1958 "The first time I read 'Lolita' I thought it was one of the funniest books I'd ever come upon. (This was in the abbreviated version published in the 'Anchor Review' last year.) The second time I read it, uncut, I thought it was the saddest. I mention this personal reaction only because 'Lolita' is one of those occasional books which arrive swishing a long tail of opinion and reputation which can knock the unwary reader off his feet." -- Elizabeth Janeway
Washington Post Book World, 08/20/1995 "Passions never burned so feverishly as in this, the great and perverse love story of our times." -- Michael Dirda
New Yorker, 08/25/1997 "Nabokov's elusiveness...is not just playful. Forever changing sides and withholding judgment, he has contrived to forestall both our outrage at his nasty hero and our contemptuous dismissal of his trivial, complicit Juliet. His irony is never patronizing or angry....For all its glittering distractions and diversions, this is a love story, after all--an unexpected grand romance, with a poignance and conviction that match anything in our old box of American valentines." -- Roger Angell
Esquire "Lolita is a fine book, a distinguished book--all right then--a great book." -- Dorothy Parker
Lionel Trilling "In recent fiction no lover has thought of his beloved with so much tenderness, no woman has been so lovingly evoked....It is one of the few examples of rapture in modern writing...."
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