Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955)

“Thus, neither of us is alive when the reader opens this book. But while the blood still throbs through my writing hand, you are still as much part of blessed matter as I am, and I can still talk to you from here to Alaska. Be true to your Dick. Do not let other fellows touch you. Do not talk to strangers. I hope you will love your baby. I hope it will be a boy. That husband of yours, I hope, will always treat you well, because otherwise my specter shall come at him, like black smoke, like a demented giant, and pull him apart nerve by nerve. And do not pity C. Q. One had to choose between him and H.H., and one wanted H.H. to exist at least a couple of months longer, so as to have him make you live in the minds of later generations. I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita.” Vladimir Nabokov

Author: Vladimir Nabokov was born on April 23, 1899, in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Nabokov household was trilingual, and, as a child, Nabokov was already reading novels in French, English and Russian. As a young man, he studied Slavic and Romance languages at Trinity College, Cambridge, taking his honours degree in 1922. Nabokov became a refugee in 1940, when he was forced to leave France for the United States. There he taught at Wellesley, Harvard and Cornell. He also gave up writing in Russian and began composing fiction in English. Vladimir Nabokov died in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1977.

My thoughts: Lolita is synonymous with controversy. Even more than sixty years later, it’s still a standout novel, playfully perverse in form as well as in content: an unmistakable masterpiece. This is the kind of creative work of a great writer that I personally adore. I love Vladimir’s fluid writing and his elegance. Passages from the book remain engraved in my mind. That said, I have friends who didn’t like it at all or who flatly refused to read it…

I thought very carefully before posting this book review for fear of shocking my readers, but then I remembered that one of the things I promise to myself is to only post things I truly love. This is my space, part of my world and all the things I adore… I am very fond of Russian authors although I don’t know many of them. My favorite novels were written by the greatest Russian authors and I am deeply fond of their culture.

Here an extract from the book

 “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo.Lee.Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.” Vladimir Nabokov