Sunday, 10 March 2013

Book Review: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Craig Raine

Lolita is a memoir of the doomed and hopeless passion of a certain pedophile, namely Humbert Humbert. This may come across as unacceptable and vile on his part, but also to be noted is the fact that no one faces the turmoil of this love more than Humbert himself. After suffering the loss of an adolescent love, Humbert is left with a forbidden passion for nymphets.

Adrift in America, he meets his landlady’s daughter Dolores. She becomes the love of his life and the fate of his soul. “It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight”, as he puts it. The juvenile girl becomes his only concern and drowned in his squalid temptation, Humbert will go to any extent to possess his Lo, his Lolita.

Vladimir Nabokov’s exquisite command of words and brilliant satire leaves the reader in awe. With the background of mock American conventionality, Nabokov weaves the tale of joyous togetherness and the requiem of parting.

Read this book for its splendid meticulousness, for brilliant sentences, for morbid humor, for a scandalizing yet classic literature. 
 
- Anubhav Srivastava

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