Lolita

It's horrible. It's brilliant. One of those (very few) books which made me see the world in a different way.

The annotated version is excellent, I agree. The lepidopteral references, as well as the hidden Quilty appearances, don't quite come across in the film so well. Quilty is too obvious in both versions. In the book, he is a very sinister gothic twin we get the impression is stalking Humbert as much as he is Lo. She becomes a fetish object, something Humbert knows is going to be taken away from him by this unseen ghoul, and that makes it chilling, even in broad daylight scenes. I love the impotence of Humbert's revenge too. It's so unexpected in so many ways, subverting so many conventions all at once. Heartbreaking stuff.

I can't really say much about this, mainly because it's all been said before, but partly because I don't think I could do the novel justice. This is a perfect car crash read: you can't help but be drawn into the twisted justifications of Humbert through Nabokov's semantic beauty. I didn't like that I liked reading it.

You know what I mean.

I wouldn't call it a slim work! It's a long time since I read it - and I adored it - but for the most sophisticated of Nabokov's word play, you must try 'Ada'.

Humbert Humbert is a wonderful protagonist. Entertaining, revolting and pitiable all at once.

Nabokov's mastery of the English language here is amazing. One can only marvel at what he must read like in his native Russian.

Not just the visual acuity either. Try reaing the opening line and observing what your tongue does as you say her name. Delicious!

I thoroughly agree with you. AS a re-read I chose the annotated version, and this was well worth it. Only after reading the notes did I fully appreciate how Nabokov plays with the reader! The whole novel is full of teasers and puns....which I never noticed when first reading "Lolita" many years ago. A truly brilliant author.

I have yet to read this slim work although I have owned a copy for decades. Would you recommend I start with the annotated version or come to that second time around?

I prefer the annotated version; you aren't obligated to look it all up the first time around, but it would be helpful for a few things nonetheless.

This was an incredible book (#4 in the of 100 best list I am reading). Nabokov is a genius. You can tell this from reading his bio., but his writing is amazing. From his treatment of the readers' anticipation, to tennis as an avenue for fetishism, to his literary trapeze act, he breaks a subject out of it's potentially smutty mold and escapes the constraints of the literary canon. He directs the user away from the normal path of sleaze fiction and usurps sensibilities. There are no "good guys" and "bad guys" in the story. Lolita Haze is not a sympathetic victim and Humbert Humbert is a pathetic villain. The book made me laugh out loud and the visual acuity of Nabokov's descriptions is astounding.