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  • 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. Most of all, it is a meditation on love ... Continue

    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. Most of all, it is a meditation on love - love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.

    

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• ― meganzing said on Nov 19, 2007 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

• 2 people find this helpful

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  • There is a reason why Vladmir Nabokov is considered one of the greatest writers of this past century - and this novel is the best-known example of his deceptively simple style. Nabokov is a master storyteller, he gives great characterizations and has amazing attention to detail. (some may contend t ... Continue

    There is a reason why Vladmir Nabokov is considered one of the greatest writers of this past century - and this novel is the best-known example of his deceptively simple style. Nabokov is a master storyteller, he gives great characterizations and has amazing attention to detail. (some may contend too much of the latter, especially in the various hotel entries.)

    It is often maligned by people who only have heard the concept of this work, and never actually read the book. It's a beautiful, finely wrought jewel of a book, deservedly acclaimed as one of the best of the 20th century.

    Read it and judge for yourself.

    

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• ― guaddess said on Aug 17, 2007 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • *** This comment contains spoilers! ***
  • High School

  • My friend recommended this book to me, so I went to the store, bought it, and started reading. I carried it around to school the whole time I was reading it. I LOVE this book. I remember one of my teachers practically freaked out when he saw me reading it, then asked me where I got it. Another teach ... Continue

    My friend recommended this book to me, so I went to the store, bought it, and started reading. I carried it around to school the whole time I was reading it. I LOVE this book. I remember one of my teachers practically freaked out when he saw me reading it, then asked me where I got it. Another teacher I knew later told me I should have told him, "Well, you see, there was this older man on the bus, and he gave it to me and told me I should read it, so here I am..."

    

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• ― Ifonearth said on Jan 31, 2009 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • The beginning was a bit tough to get through, but once it's gotten started it is very good. I love the prose style of writing and Nabokov does it beautifully. I'm half-way through it, on Part II.

    

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• ― RaechelM said on Nov 8, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Far to risque for my tastes...

    

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• ― Charley Snipe said on Aug 21, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • The new translation is better.

    

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• ― Lissette 2 said on Nov 4, 2007 about the Hardcover edition| Add your feedback

In this Readers' Guide, Christine Clegg examines the critical history of Lolita through a broad range of interpretations. Although early criticism of the text polarized around 'that' question - is it literature or pornography? - the influence of American critics such as Lionel Trilling quickly secured canonical status for the novel. A compelling aspect of Lolita criticism is the way in which that question continues to return in different forms. In the 1980s and 1990s, Lolita has been the subject of diverse critical attention, beyond 'Nabokov Studies': from Richard Rorty's philosophical inquiry into the ethics of cruelty, to Rachel Bowlby's feminist analysis of the rhetoric of consumer culture in the novel. All of the main critical approaches to the novel are covered by this indispensable sourcebook.

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