Lolita
1777
- erotic fiction
- romance fiction
- fiction
- love stories
- novela
- literary fiction
- classic fiction
- coming-of-age
- girls in fiction
- girls
The story
Lolita is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The novel is notable for its controversial subject: the protagonist and unreliable narrator, a middle-aged literature professor under the pseudonym Humbert Humbert, is obsessed with a 12-year-old girl, Dolores Haze, whom he sexually molests after he becomes her stepfather. "Lolita" is his private nickname for Dolores. The novel was originally written in English and first published in Paris in 1955 by Olympia Press. Later it was translated into Russian by Nabokov himself and published in New York City in 1967 by Phaedra Publishers. --- Also contained in: - [Собрание сочинений русского периода в пяти томах: Смех в темноте / Lolita](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL22529308W) - [Novels 1955-1962](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL20643775W/Novels_1955-1962) - [Works: Ada / Lolita](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL17687842W/Ada_Lolita)
What it’s like
Dense, glittering sentences that turn on puns, alliteration and sly allusion, with a sweltering mid-century American road-trip world of motel neon, drugstore counters, dusty highways and lakeside heat rendered in vivid, overripe detail. The voice is ornate, witty and self-justifying, so the reading experience is one of unease: charm and lyricism pulling against the reader's growing horror. The narrator is a European émigré professor whose elegance is a mask, and the book's sexual abuse of a child is described in disturbing, unflinching terms, though never graphically. Violence is sparse but present. The mood is feverish, claustrophobic and mournful, with a slow, episodic rhythm that drifts through long digressions before tightening into dread. It suits a quiet, focused sitting rather than casual reading, and it is not gentle or comforting. It is for readers interested in unreliable narration, stylistic virtuosity and literature that confronts the rationalizations of an abuser, and it is unsuitable for anyone seeking escapism or a romance.
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