Captivating, Controversial Classic

Nabokov´s prose captivated me from his very first lines. („Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.”) The most common reaction from those who saw me reading this book was „Oh my god you´re a pedaphile… that book is about an old man and a little girl”. I expected to be repulsed by this book, and although the topic is very disgusting, the story is told so beautifully, so pure, so heart-wrenchingly sad in some parts and so doubled-over-with-laughter funny in other parts that I couldn´t help but love the book. As the narrator warns in the beginning, „You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style.”

The story, for those unfamiliar with this classic, is the aging Humbert Humbert´s fanatical obsession with twelve-year-old Delores Haze. The book tells of his pursuit, conquest, and loss of her with perfect emotional and intellectual captivation. Lolita´s character is painted so clearly that I kept thinking I saw her face on the street, that I heard her voice in my head. Nabokov has such a beautiful writing style that the story and its characters were always with me. I finished this book a week ago, and I keep picking it up to reread parts because of his delicious story-telling. I also keep remembering parts of it in my head.

Instead of painting the narrator as the ruthless vicious person the reader would expect a pedophile to be, Nabokov has Humbert tell his story as a victim, of someone who is kept away from the love of his life by mean things like laws and ethics. He is also incredibly funny, and in the middle of telling a horrible detail about the characters´ relationship, the author will insert hilarious ramblings like „I don´t care if these verb tenses aren´t right”.

This story captivated me, and now I have such an interest in Nabokov that I want to buy all his books and savor them one by one. I think he is not only an intellectual genius but a master of the art of storytelling – and writing – as well. This was one exhilirating read, and I recommend it to literature lovers everywhere.

Anita Kelley
is BellaOnline’s Literary Fiction Host