Lolita-Vladimir Nabokov
Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin,my soul.
These are the opening lines of the book. The first line itself held me perplexed, astonished and extremely inquisitive to complete this book as soon as I can. Fair Warning- this is not the usual kind of a novel that has an understandable and agreeable storyline. Lolita is a story about a professor of English named Humbert Humbert who is tremendously attracted to small girls aged between 9-12, basically a pedophile. The man, who as an exceptional academic record, tries everything to get over this feeling of his, by seeing therapists, making himself understand that this is illegal and immoral and even by getting married. But nothing in the world makes his heart sway as it does when he sees a little girl, and he forgets everything for a second. This psychological stance of his, is connected to his younger years when he was a young boy and got attracted to a girl named Annabel. They had their intimate moments and he was head over heels with her but then she died due to typhus. Hence his urge to spend time with Lilith got carried forward to his present, and he still can not get over those passionate moments with her in that summer. Hence he found Annabel in every small girl he saw, his first love or lust.
He gets a job in the United States, and comes and stays with a widow named Charlotte Haze in a suburban, New England. There he falls for her daughter, Dolores Haze, who brings back his childhood love memories back to him and makes it all again real and existing. Though he keeps his plans, thoughts and horrendously sexual ideas about her to himself in his diary he never really advances or makes a move on her, knowing that she is but just a 12-year-old girl and this is his issue, which he will have to deal with in spite of the overwhelming feelings that Lolita insights in him. This is a prominent characteristic of Humbert throughout the novel that he never lets his id take over him, and always makes his ego the front-runner to capture his desires. The story really takes a turn, when Charlotte finds his diary and all is revealed. She dies in a car accident and then there is nobody who can stop him from making Lolita his.
The very important part of the story is that Dolores is finding her sexuality and hence experiments with it in the camp she is sent to. Throughout the novel as well, it has been shown that she has been making improper and adulterated advances towards Humbert when he is living in their house, showing that she has sexual interests in him as well. Despite of the age gap, and him being around her father’s age she does not control her desires and continuously makes sensuous remarks and gestures towards him. All of this gives Humbert a sense of hope and he gets out of his shell to conquer and make her his.
As Dolores has nowhere to go, she has to stick with him. She uses her body to get everything she wants, clothes, money, chocolates. At that point she is unable to decipher the depth of this relationship and her emotions due to her age. Hence she just uses it as a bait, and Humbert as of course is in love with her(which he asserts or if it is just his psyche and his personality issues) does not budge to any of her commands, if he gets to touch her.
This goes on for a while, while they are on the run and reach the other part of the country where Humbert gets a job and enrolls her in a girl’s school specifically so that she does not mix up with guys. With the passage of time, Dolores gets out of her bait game and realises that she is stuck with Humbert forever unless and until she plans to run away. Humbert has been shown as a pedophile in the start but as the story progresses and you read him, mind and heart, he really cannot help his personality, that is what he continuously asserts. Also he has never hurt any girl in his whole life and has kept his desires to himself because he knows that the society will imprison him. But, when he meets Dolores all his desires overcome him and he cannot help but fall for her. Dolores, in my opinion, has shrewdly and tactfully used herself to keep safe and sound but later she feels imprisoned in a cage and wants to get out of it. Humbert also gets to complete all his lustful ambitions with a small girl of which he has dreamt of all his life. To really analyse the whole story there are a lot of aspects and it could take another book to decipher these two characters. But if you are in search of an unusual literary art that will impress and shock you, both at the same time then this is the read. I give it a 8/10.
P.S : Only for those who have the patience to read because this one is a difficult one to keep track with because of its intensive literary use and words.
You Can Buy this book here:Amazon
Review: Goodreads
Movie Trailer:
These are the opening lines of the book. The first line itself held me perplexed, astonished and extremely inquisitive to complete this book as soon as I can. Fair Warning- this is not the usual kind of a novel that has an understandable and agreeable storyline. Lolita is a story about a professor of English named Humbert Humbert who is tremendously attracted to small girls aged between 9-12, basically a pedophile. The man, who as an exceptional academic record, tries everything to get over this feeling of his, by seeing therapists, making himself understand that this is illegal and immoral and even by getting married. But nothing in the world makes his heart sway as it does when he sees a little girl, and he forgets everything for a second. This psychological stance of his, is connected to his younger years when he was a young boy and got attracted to a girl named Annabel. They had their intimate moments and he was head over heels with her but then she died due to typhus. Hence his urge to spend time with Lilith got carried forward to his present, and he still can not get over those passionate moments with her in that summer. Hence he found Annabel in every small girl he saw, his first love or lust.
The very important part of the story is that Dolores is finding her sexuality and hence experiments with it in the camp she is sent to. Throughout the novel as well, it has been shown that she has been making improper and adulterated advances towards Humbert when he is living in their house, showing that she has sexual interests in him as well. Despite of the age gap, and him being around her father’s age she does not control her desires and continuously makes sensuous remarks and gestures towards him. All of this gives Humbert a sense of hope and he gets out of his shell to conquer and make her his.
As Dolores has nowhere to go, she has to stick with him. She uses her body to get everything she wants, clothes, money, chocolates. At that point she is unable to decipher the depth of this relationship and her emotions due to her age. Hence she just uses it as a bait, and Humbert as of course is in love with her(which he asserts or if it is just his psyche and his personality issues) does not budge to any of her commands, if he gets to touch her.
P.S : Only for those who have the patience to read because this one is a difficult one to keep track with because of its intensive literary use and words.
You Can Buy this book here:Amazon
Review: Goodreads
Movie Trailer:
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