A psychological novel exploring the distasteful topic of pedophilia. No doubt groundbreaking in its time, it is still disturbing in the present day.

Thank you very much for the RABCK ghir! I look forward to reading this. I have Reading Lolita in Tehran, and wanted to read Lolita first. I will update with a journal entry when I am done.

I am still reading this, but wanted to give a review of my impressions so far.

The writing style is great, (if you ignore the excesses) but the subject is, of course disturbing. I understand that it is supposed to be symbolic of something, but I am not sure what. I will look into when I am done reading. I should have done it before to have a better understanding of the book while reading, but thought in looking into it, I may find out the end or something. As for the excesses- There are parts where he seems to go on and on, more or less listing places they traveled or people they met, without going into any detail or making them seem relevant to the story. And at one point he describes Lolita's tennis style and it is a bit much. I think he is trying to convey that he knows her deeply by describing her minutely, but it just got boring.

Okay, I finished it. I was interested in all this symbolism talk surrounding the book that I have heard. I read in the author's afterward that it was just a story, not meant to represent anything regarding American & European people. I decided to check the internet anyway to see what I could come up with. This is a quote that I found that seemed to sum up what everyone thought the book was supposed to mean "a specific view of post-war America through the eyes of a detached, disillusioned and over-civilized European immigrant, struggling with his demons."
I tend to believe that the author wanted to write on a pornagraphic subject using beautiful prose to show off his mastery of the English language while not being overtly sexually graphic. Maybe I believe that because that is what I thought of the book myself. I found the subject matter disturbing, but filled with "pretty" prose.
I noted throughout that either the author overdid his descriptions or he felt that the narrator, Humbert, should overdo them. By that, I mean, I am unsure if it was intentionally done by the author or a flaw in his writing style. Either way, when it popped up, it bored me to pieces. I also had a hard time with the French phrases peppered throughout the book. I don't know any French and just have to assume I didn't miss too much in not looking them up.
Other than that, it was a fascinating story. In the beginning Humbert seemed to partially blame the young girls he found attractive. By the end though his tuned seemed to have changed somewhat.

RELEASE NOTES:

RABCK to fulfill a wish

I just received this in todays mail, thanks so much for sending it!

I will pass this on to chomper when finished if she is still interested!

I tried and tried to read this book but I just can't. Part of it is the writting style, and the fact that there are small bits in another language. I'm not sure which one, but maybe French? Either way I don't know French and I got tired of having to find an online translator every few sentances to know what was being said! That said, I'm just going to pass this on to someone who might enjoy it more.

I tried contacting Chomper several times and didn't hear back, so this will go to another BC member who has requested it.

Thanks for this RABCK :)