Moopy Book Club (May '20): Vladimir Nabokov - 'Lolita'

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'Lolita is comedy, subversive yet divine ... You read Lolita sprawling limply in your chair, ravished, overcome, nodding scandalised assent' Martin Amis, Observer

From Goodreads.com:


Humbert Humbert - scholar, aesthete and romantic - has fallen completely and utterly in love with Lolita Haze, his landlady's gum-snapping, silky skinned twelve-year-old daughter. Reluctantly agreeing to marry Mrs Haze just to be close to Lolita, Humbert suffers greatly in the pursuit of romance; but when Lo herself starts looking for attention elsewhere, he will carry her off on a desperate cross-country misadventure, all in the name of Love. Hilarious, flamboyant, heart-breaking and full of ingenious word play, Lolita is an immaculate, unforgettable masterpiece of obsession, delusion and lust.
 
In fact I'm 99% certain I picked it up from the 'take a book leave a book' type library in some bungalows we stayed in, which adds more grubbiness to that story.
 
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i has started this but i left it a quarter of the way in for giovanni's room which was simply beckoning me.

i'm enjoying the writing so far but it does feel a bit murky... also, i'm starting to think i've already read it an age ago.
anyway, will report back.
 
How are you my darling nymphets dealing with the poison in your loins?

I read about a third of this yesterday and can’t wait to read more today. Am I this sick and perverted or is it just too ridiculous and exciting? I’m loving the writing and the moist atmosphere of it all. Lolita I can’t help imagining being Ariana Grande or Natalie Portman in Leon, which makes it all even dirtier.
 
How are you my darling nymphets dealing with the poison in your loins?

I read about a third of this yesterday and can’t wait to read more today. Am I this sick and perverted or is it just too ridiculous and exciting?

i find his contempt (and mild disgust) for females over the age of 14 quite hilarious.

can't wait to see what the point is of the whole thing is.
 
I loved this like I loved Lana’s Ride video. :disco: I don’t know what to say, I was scandalized and disgusted by it, but at the same time I enjoyed both the chase and the search for Lolita, and ended up almost feeling sorry for Humbert. I wish some parts of it were shown from Lolita’s pov but I guess that would have turned it into a different kind of tale.
 
coincidentally I read an article about Richard Huckle yesterday and briefly felt awful for picking it up :D :zombie:

I'm about halfway through. the narration is so bubbling with energy, I love it
 
Agreed - how about a female author?

We could go for something totally different like Girl, Woman, Other?
 
We're going with Carol. It was decided in the other thread. But thanks for your contributions. We may consider them for July.
 
My copy of this has just arrived and I’ll probably finish it by this time next year or never, so don’t expect a review. I obviously haven’t been paying attention as I didn’t realise that Lolita was only 12 (:side-eye:). Actually I might end up finishing it sooner, given that I’m almost certainly as sick and perverted as @RaspberrySwirl if not more so :disco:
 
yes, my fellow Humberts, I finally finished this (last month). the reason it took so long was definitely not the book's fault (rather my dry spelling spell) because what a RAMBLING SENSATION :disco: it's wordy but every string of words is a little debauched morsel, not to mention the content itself. even the writer's afterword was great. I did lose the plot a bit at the end when H.H. was driving around with a gun, and of course many of the American references and symbols throw you off a bit but it was still a joyride
 

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