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Lolita  By  cover art

Lolita

By: Vladimir Nabokov
Narrated by: Jeremy Irons
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Publisher's summary

The most famous and controversial novel from one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century tells the story of Humbert Humbert’s obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze.

"The conjunction of a sense of humor with a sense of horror [results in] satire of a very special kind."
—The New Yorker

Awe and exhilaration—along with heartbreak and mordant wit—abound in Lolita, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsession for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America.

Most of all, it is a meditation on love—love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.

(P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

One of TIME Magazine's All-Time 100 Novels

"Lolita blazes with a perversity of a most original kind. For Mr. Nabokov has distilled from his shocking material hundred-proof intellectual farce…Lolita seems an assertion of the power of the comic spirit to wrest delight and truth from the most outlandish materials. It is one of the funniest serious novels I have ever read; and the vision of its abominable hero, who never deludes or excuses himself, brings into grotesque relief the cant, the vulgarity, and the hypocritical conventions that pervade the human comedy." —The Atlantic Monthly

"Intensely lyrical and wildly funny." —Time

"The only convincing love story of our century." —Vanity Fair

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What listeners say about Lolita

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    7,365
  • 4 Stars
    2,297
  • 3 Stars
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  • 2 Stars
    335
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Performance
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Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
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    5,836
  • 4 Stars
    1,961
  • 3 Stars
    932
  • 2 Stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

An Absolutely Gorgeous Audible Experience

I have tried to read LOLITA on several occassions, but for whatever reason--probably the dull, midwest monotony of my internal reading voice--have put the book down. I purchased LOLITA (read by Jeremy Irons) with a sense of trepidation (had I just bought something I would never finish?) The book is as impressive as the critics will tell you. Nabokov's language, his ability to fully render a scene, his mind-boggling vocabularly, and his characters--those desperate and beautiful and horrible creatures--are like nothing else in the canon of fiction. Add to this the luxurious experience of Jeremy Irons' voice and you end up with a book--a reading--that will make you shake your head in awe.

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212 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A masterpiece

It took me a long time to convince myself to "read" this disturbing book, and as soon as I finished the audiobook I went out and bought myself a print version. This book is written with a mastery of language and a chilling insight into the depths of the human soul that make it a true masterpiece. And the narration... If ever there was a perfect match between book and reader, this is it.

All I can say is: Get this book. You won't regret it.

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99 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Surprising good reading

This book's subject matter is admitedly an unsavory one to most, however, it is considered in some circles to be a "classic" work and so I resigned myself to reading it. I am glad that I did. I was surprised at how completely I was drawn into the story. This book is very well written and deserving of the serious reader's consideration.

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87 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A sad, sad book

I just don't know what to rate this book. As far as the writing itself, it was beautifully written. But the story, frankly, made me a little sick to my stomach. It is the story of a pedophile who is so crazy about this 12 year old girl that he marries her mother so he can have access to her. You start to believe that Lolita welcomes this until she gets a good chance to run away, and then she is gone. By then she is more like 16 or 17. Well this man is certifiably crazy, although he puts on a great exterior. He is educated, handsome, extremely polite and thoughtful. In short, someone who would be attractive to most women, and certainly to young girls. My heart just breaks for Lolita, whose real name is Dolores. He just starts calling her Lolita. It somehow evolves from her nickname of "Lo" into the more seductive sounding Lolita. What she must have gone through!!

Now with that said, I come back to the writing itself. Yes it is beautiful. It is even tastefully done. There are no graphic details other than a kiss, but of course it is extremely suggestive. It seems to me that it takes a lot more skill to suggest what is going on than it does to spell it all out. This book is tastefully written. I guess my heart breaks for Humbert as well. It is truly a sad, sad book. Haven't had something affect me like this since "Tess of the d'Urbervilles." I don't recommend either book, btw, not unless you are into heavy, sad but beautifully written books. I think I have to give this book three stars, sort of in the middle of things, because I sit the fence on it. I can't say that I'm sorry I read it, but it makes me sick to think about it very much.

I am sure one of the reasons I continued with this book is Jeremy Irons' narration. He is, as you would expect, a fabulous narrator. It is easy to fall in love with him. So, fabulous writing, fabulous narration, but sad story equals at the very least an interesting book. I know I should give it a five if I were true to my formula which is, if a book changes my life, it is an automatic 5, even if I didn't like it so much. But something just prevents me from doing that. I will always remember this book, but I will never read it again.

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77 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Perfection.

I find it difficult to believe that any person could give Lolita less than five stars, and the audio performance by Jeremy Irons is beyond masterful. Yes, this is a disturbing book - it is meant to be. Is it pro-pedophilia? Emphatically not. Any person who sticks with the book to the very bitter end comes to realize the true theme of Lolita, and feels the sadness of a lost chance at redemption.

In my opinion, there has never been a more beautiful, touching, shocking, and profound work of fiction than Lolita. Jeremy Irons as the narrator is just the icing on the cake.

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77 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Nabokov Narrated with Subtlety

This audiobook is completely sustained by the superb and finely attuned narration of Jeremy Irons. While Lolita is and remains a classic of 20th Century literature, this production will allow you to see [hear] a completely new perspective. Irons takes you completely inside the mind of Humbert Humbert, and with skill and subtlety makes you loathe him and sympathize with him at the same time. His tremulous and unspeakable desire mixed with his engulfing shame, his cowardice and his bravery standing side by side, his disregard of social norms tempered by his utter need for secrecy -- all of these conflicts are roiling beneath the surface of the story as it unfolds. This is a performance that only the finest of actors could pull off.

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68 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Incandescent

Nabokov's masterpiece, Lolita, is wistful, erotic, funny, sad, elegiac. Although it is about the passion of an adult male for a female child, it is, at its heart, a heartbreaking love story. With his glorious words (and wordplay), Nabokov paints portraits of his characters and their different longings and pain that are so real and so sympathetic, one is left breathless.

Jeremy Irons, who was a brilliant Humbert in Adrian Lyne's movie, reads this book into your ear as if he is sitting beside you, wanting more than anything to make you understand how it all happened.

Lolita is a work of art on the printed page, and also as an audiobook. But don't listen in traffic -- it deserves the listener's rapt, undivided attention.

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59 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

#1

Some narrators read a book. However, this one is done with such great passion that I rank it as one of the top five, if not the top #1 for best narration. Though I feel that a book can do little to shock me, somewhat because of modern times and somewhat because I'm a morbid person... this book got under my skin and terrified me in ways that I don't think Stephen King could even touch on. Taking place some sixty years ago... I did not expect it to be as potent today as it might have been back then, but the writing is so good that this is a classic for a reason. Definitely a timeless book. The narrator is what makes it though.

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46 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Delightfully devious.

Ok first of all, Jeremy Irons. Is. A. God. I would listen to him narrate the phone book to me, and not just because he's Jeremy Irons, but because he really and truly brings this book to life and I know he would make every name in the yellow pages ring with significance and meaning until I cried with the beauty of it all. His every intake of breath is part of the story, every pause is there for a reason, every single syllable is spoken in just the perfect way to put you inside poor Humbert Humbert's sad mind until you start mentally narrating your routine daily life with the same sinister intonations. I honestly believe Irons' narration is superior to his performance in Lolita the film because here you get frontal lobe seats to the nymphet obsessed HH just as Nabokov intended. Second, the story is, and has always been, one of my favorites. Its perversely delightful. All the wrong things happen in this story, and yet Nabokav does it with so much wit and frank honesty that you cant help but laugh out loud as HH details the seedy depths of his intentions and secret dreams. The writing is extraordinary!!! Nabokov submerges you in his prose and takes you to the intimate depths of a world where a pervert's fantasy becomes reality. This is truly a gritty experience that leaves you dusty from sitting between HH and Lola on their cross-country motel spree.

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39 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Disturbing but beautiful

There is really nothing to add to all the wonderful reviews that have been written about this story and it's masterful narration. It is well worth the time to listen. My heart broke a million times over for little Dolores and I was shocked by how much sympathy I felt for the monster Humbert Humbert by the end of the story.
Jeremy Irons is a masterful narrator. I loved every second of it. Even when I wanted to choke HH.

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34 people found this helpful