Paperback, 228 pages
English language
Published May 16, 1983 by McGraw-Hill Book Company.
Here is the text of Nabokov's own screen adaptation of his celebrated novel, written in California in 1960 for the director Stanley Kubrick. The film was made by Kubrick, with heavy modifications of Nabokov's script, and released in 1962 - a critical and commercial success. In his forward to this book, Nabokov records his reaction upon seeing the final result - "a mixture of aggravation, regret, and reluctant pleasure...Kubrick saw my novel in one way, I saw it in another."
This book provides a fascinating look into the creative process, showing a writer's struggle to turn his own literary masterpiece into a movie script. This is a must for students of the problems of novels versus movies and for fans of Lolita, the novel and the movie.
(back cover)
The silence of Dolores is ear-splitting. Well, except for the bit about everyone hating all that fucking French. I choose to believe that was an authentic thought untinged by Humbert's narration.
uh im 90% through the book. its at the part where he's starting to reflect on how poorly he treated dolly and how traumatizing her childhood was, and unfortunately i am a pissbaby and cannot go any further. so lets just say i finished it ok? :] i dont really want to see this book ever again.
nabokovs writing is funny and charming. but this subject is difficult for me and strikes a bad chord in my heart . i feel sick to my stomach, no offence.
You spend the first half thinking "what the heck is this?" and the second half thinking "how the heck can anyone write so well?"
Probably the most cleverly written book that I’ve ever read, but I don’t know why it had to be about such a vulgar topic. It was the epitome of awful taste, but great execution. Fortunately the most lurid scenes are only alluded to or described in metaphor. I’m looking forward to reading Nabokov’s other books which I hope will keep the same level of wit while having a plot that can’t possibly be as indecent as “Lolita”.
A good book is always the type you have to read many times. It's not always, but it's usually the case.
Lolita is a marvelous product of prose-writing. More than that, however, is the soul of a love story "crossed by the stars". It's not an easy read, as the images melt so seamlessly it gets one lost on occasion. That's the point. That's what writing is supposed to be, I guess, for the purposes of the great Vladimir Nabokov. The walls of creative writing broke down in his prose, and, as a millenial, I have only discovered it.
No, it's not an easy read, but for the reader itself, it's a test of character of gaining substance amid a meticulous style. Humbert's meditations on love, life, and his darling Lolita looks, at first, a prelude to erotic adventures. But no, no, mistaken was the reader for such perceptions that …
A good book is always the type you have to read many times. It's not always, but it's usually the case.
Lolita is a marvelous product of prose-writing. More than that, however, is the soul of a love story "crossed by the stars". It's not an easy read, as the images melt so seamlessly it gets one lost on occasion. That's the point. That's what writing is supposed to be, I guess, for the purposes of the great Vladimir Nabokov. The walls of creative writing broke down in his prose, and, as a millenial, I have only discovered it.
No, it's not an easy read, but for the reader itself, it's a test of character of gaining substance amid a meticulous style. Humbert's meditations on love, life, and his darling Lolita looks, at first, a prelude to erotic adventures. But no, no, mistaken was the reader for such perceptions that the world has posed on books like this!
Was it a love story? Was it, for all intents and purposes, a classic? That is for you to decide. Because however phantasmal the phallic fantasies of a 40-something metafictional character, - ladies and gentlemen of the jury - the judgment remains into your hands.
This was a very interesting read, and quite different from what I'd expected.
The book isn't nearly as explicit as I'd feared, and it is very intelligently written.
For a more in-depth discussion of Lolita, stop by my blog: outsideofacat.wordpress.com/2013/06/27/reading-lolita/ and outsideofacat.wordpress.com/2013/06/30/final-thoughts-on-lolita-nabokov/
Everybody seems to rave about how good this book is; I just didn't see it.
It is many things, but mostly, it is a love story.(50)
Everything you've heard it is except dirty. The best thing I've read about it is what Nabokov wrote in an afterword to it. Lolita, he wrote, was about his love affair with the English language.
