Lolita
 

I just finished reading Lolita and I must say it was nothing like what I thought it would be - it was a really compelling read of course but it was quite interesting to get an insight into the mind of a paedophile and be forced to empathise with him (if not sympathise - definitely a grey area)... I think it's brilliant the way Nabokov builds up to Humbert and Dolores' first sexual encounter and thereafter the sheer patheticness of Humbert's attempts to control her and how over time she treats him as nothing more than an annoyance while he desperately tries to control her... Definitely one of the last remaining literary taboos I think, discussing paedophilia, because obviously it evokes quite a strong reaction and is deemed as too perverse to discuss. Really, the book is about the mental health of a man who, to almost anyone else, would have appeared perfectly normal. It's interesting to read that you could interpret his account as either being factual, i.e. Dolly really was disinterested and over it, or you could dismiss that as him playing down the abusive childhood he gives this poor girl and how he ruins her life and causes her to run away from him to someone just as bad and so on... cycle of abuse etc.

Has anyone else read this classic? I'm looking for something new to read, hoping to find something just as thought provoking, any suggestions?

I've been meaning to get around to it. :think: your recommendation may have swayed me to buy.

I actually bought it because I'd said something along the lines of "Ariana Grande just makes me think of Lolita" and then thought I have no idea what I'm talking about, I've never read Lolita, I just know the common cliche about sexually mature looking young girls etc (even though Ariana is like 21) but having now read Lolita I can see that the association with the name Lolita has nothing to do with the book really, maybe it came from the film (which I have yet to see)...

Humbert is attracted to pre-pubescent girls and calls them nymphets and seems to project these characteristics onto them and he treats Dolly's school girl crush on him as a sexual advance and more or less takes advantage of her while telling himself that she wanted it... it's fascinatingly well written in my opinion.

It's years since I first read Lolita and about 10 years since I re-read it.

Have you read 'Last Exit To Brooklyn' by Hubert Selby Jr.? Or 'Our Lady of the Flowers' by Jean Genet?

Both disturbed me a little when I was a young man.

Ooh I haven't read either! I'll give them both a go kirk and report back, thanks!

So it's not a paedophile's version of 50 Shades Of Grey?

My Dad might like this Book as he likes Psychological Books.

A really 'classic' book I enjoyed reading was 'Sons and Lovers' by D.H. Lawrence. Also 'Women in Love'.
Another book I read as a young woman was 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'. It was banned when it was first published and when I finally got to read it I wondered what all the fuss had been about.:shrug:

Nah the references to sex are really subtle, it's more to do with the mental breakdown of this guy as he's on the run with this child knowing that he's breaking the law and is convinced they're being followed and totally ends up losing it...

I'm not really a reader of Books, but they could make a good Film out of it.

Been done Mock- twice.

I had to read this for my A-Levels. Well I was inspired to read it because of LDR's "Lolita". I was just going to watch the film but Ofc the book is much more detailed. Have you read a Clockwork Orange? Very violent.