Awe and exhilaration -- along with heartbreak and mordant wit -- abound in LOLITA, Vladimir Nabokov's most famous and controversial novel, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. LOLITA is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America. Most of all, it is a meditation on love -- love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation."

One of my favourite books; a superb piece of literature. Humbert is laugh-out-loud ridiculous, pathetic, squirmingly naive and frighteningly obsessive all at once. His distorted view of his "romance" with his titular "vulgar darling" is hypnotic and fascinating, and more than a little nauseating, to say the least...this is NOT a book you want to be seen reading anywhere near a playground!

If you like Lolita, you might also enjoy Ian McEwan's Enduring Love, another fascinating tale of obsession and desire.

What a surprise! This one turned up in the mail at work today - I'll read it next once I've finished slowly chomping my way through this massive tome on the gulag system I'm reading at the moment.

Thanks, geishabird!

Although I found it a little slow to get into at first, but wow . . . so amazingly well-written, such clever use of language. I found the first part a bit cursory and dull (yet still completely necessary), but past that I really got sucked in and it kept me guessing right to the very end (or maybe I'm just slow on the uptake and missed some important clues, I'm not sure).

Thanks again, geishabird! I'm so glad I finally got a chance to read this important book.

Now, to find someone to pass it on to . . .

This one's off to be a surprise RABCK!

Shhhhhhhh!

oooh!!! This arrived in the mail, another wish granted from my wishlist!

Thank you SO much, I will read and then release!

This was quite an involving and confronting story, with a few uncomfortable moments. (Once I'd gotten over my aversion to reading it at all). A great work of literature and I'm glad I read it.

Trivia: the 1997 film version release was delayed in Australia by 2 years after certain politicians called for it to be banned (claiming an 18+ rating wasn't enough). None of them had actually seen the film, and so a special screening was held at parliament house. Crazy huh.

Will pass it on to another bookcrosser. :)