Lolita

By: Vladimir Nabokov

Narrated by: Jeremy Irons

Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins

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

Best narration...EVER!

What is already a disturbing novel is made more so by the excellent narration of Jeremy Irons. Wow! What a treat.

AMAZING

AMAZING GREAT FANTASTIC!!! I LOVED IT SO MUCH IT WAS ALL GREAT THE NARRATOR ESPECIALLY WAS BRILLIANT!

Colorful, poignant, and tragic...perhaps...

A tale that can be viewed as either the colorful rantings of a deeply disturbed man, or the tragic tale of a love lost. Originally I saw the movie which also featured the audiobook narrator Jeremy Irons as the lead character Humbert Humbert and it lead to want to see the extra detail and intricacies that only a novel can contain. His performance in both is incredibly poignant. The sexual content of the book is written in highly colorful metaphor and simile and is relatively inoffensive. There is a fair amount of French in the book as well which required some extra research to translate, but overall it was a great listen.

Illustration, not roadmap

An illustration for this reader.

Here, a character muses too-safely, in the form of memoir, on various aspects of the glory and pride he wraps around his pedophilia.

Here includes the hunt of a child, the ownership of one, the measures taken to keep her, the injustices felt at her unexpected loss, and the meaning attempted to renew her to his wanting hands.

Both sterile and melancholic in its recounting and yet containing beautifully written passages on desire, I left hating men of all generations (be they ancient Greeks glorifying their mentoring or modern cultures with their child brides), men who rape children and change that verbiage or any aspect of the word “rape” to softer descriptors, men who contrive sentiments of honor, nostalgia, culture, religion, or who might even momentarily allude that such thieves of innocence possess any goodly underpinnings whatsoever for any duration of moments.

Long portions of the narrative have such endearing moments, are situationally ethical, or are just the mundane doings of a life moving forward in a particular direction. It can be deceptive to forget that this direction is ever-towards allowing an adult to keep his evil control over a child in order to rape them and take from them for the selfish desire of the writer.

Feasible, relatable in its justifications, gross, sad.

When taken as an illustration of such men and not a roadmap on being one, Lolita is stomach turning and worthwhile.

Disturbing

Disturbing and sad, but a classic for a reason. A must-read for sure, but be prepared for how sick HH is

Excellent reading of an excellent novel

Nabokov’s genius text handled by a masterful actor.

A fine supplement to a reader’s own imagining of the tale.

What a story.

Disturbing. True crime, a deluded confessional. Excellently written. You have to wonder - I cannot believe Lolita herself saw it all as romantically as he did. I was thoroughly engaged, like I needed to pay attention to learn to teach others how to avoid and survive such horrors.

Top tier reading

Breathed new air into this text. Amazing voice acting. So much personality truly understanding the main character.

A disturbing masterpiece

Jeremy Irons performance was flawless. I cannot imagine experiencing Nabokov’s exquisite prose any other way.

Not for me.

This was on my list being one of the best 100 novels ever written (Times Magazine). I would have not chosen to read it but here I am. I did not like it although the writing is a masterpiece. I never understood pedophiles - and I never will - but the novel have a perspective of what could go though their minds. I do not recommend this book unless you want to mark it as part of your read books.