Why is Lolita considered a great novel?

[WICKES]

I have never read it so I am simply and genuinely curious. Why does it have this reputation as one of the greatest novels of the 20th century? Why is a novel written from the perspective of a paedophile about his seduction and abuse of a young girl so revered? It is obvious why 1984 or Brave New World or Brideshead Revisited or Ulysses are so important.

It is always ranked in the top ten English language novels of the 20th century. Why?

[PeterL]

Lolita is considered to be beautifully written. It is not about sex with a child; although that is part of the plot.

[Adagio]

It is prose perfection. I cannot do it any justice... just pick it up and you will see.

[dfloyd]

I have had some tell me that the novel is hard to read, but I didn't find it so. It is reputedly said that Thomas Pynchon took a writing course from Nabokov and learned about writing non-linear fiction from that course. One cannot say in a brief post as to why the novel is a classic. There is much written about the novel. You should check various internet resources, then make up your own mind.

In addition to the novel, there is an unabridged cd available where you can listen to the novel in its entirety. Also, there is the movie with James Mason and Peter Sellers. This type of post angers me. Without reading the novel, you expect someone to convince you that you should. It is more reasonable to read the work, then ask questions.

[catatonic]

First of all Lolita isn't "considered a great novel"; it IS a great novel.

Secondly, Lolita is as chaste as the Virgin Mary: there isn't a four letter word to be found (with the possible exception of 'damn') within its 300 or so pages.

Lastly, lists are fun to compile and compare but hardly a reason to get bent out of shape about if they don't compare favorably to one's own.

[WICKES]

It is prose perfection. I cannot do it any justice... just pick it up and you will see.

I see. So it is famous mainly for the quality of its prose? I guess, in contrast, novels like 1984 or Brave New World are famous for their content/ the ideas they contain/ the comment or warning they make about civilisation and the future...

Is Lolita comparable to Ulysses i.e experimental and innovative in its use of language? or is it conventional, though beautiful, prose (like Evelyn Waugh's)?

[Emil Miller]

I agree with Wickes's inference that a novel about paedophilia should not be taken lightly given that it is a crime, and a particularly nasty one at that, but the protagonist is certainly made to pay for his misdemeanour, so there is some kind of retribution. What makes it an oustanding novel is Nabokov's use of a language that was not his mother tongue or even his second language. It is comparable to Joseph Conrad's mastery of English and uses idiomatic expressions much in use in the USA at the time it was written. It is also interesting as a study of the American psyche and quite amusing in parts.
The blurb on my copy accurately describes it as...Nabokov's dizzying masterpiece, which is suffused with a savage humour and rich elaborate verbal textures.

[kelby_lake]

Judge for yourself. This is the opening paragraph:
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. Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, an initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns.

Full of allusions, manipulation, playing around with words. And people can understand it, unlike Joyce. No one understands Ulysses.

[JCamilo]

Fact is, THe paedophile of lolita is condemmed not praised. He is showed as a liar and a monster, Lolita is a victim. So, it is not a book about paedoplilie as much 1984 is a book about tyrany and Brave New World about eugenics and racism.
Second, there is several other themes in Lolita, from Nabokov's critics to psychology and Freud, literature, lies, time to butterflies.

[PeterL]

Is Lolita comparable to Ulysses i.e experimental and innovative in its use of language? or is it conventional, though beautiful, prose (like Evelyn Waugh's)?

Lolita is very much like Ulysses in the playful use of langhuage and in its allusions to other works, including Ulysses and "Annabelle Lee" by E. A. Poe.

[Adagio]

I see. So it is famous mainly for the quality of its prose? I guess, in contrast, novels like 1984 or Brave New World are famous for their content/ the ideas they contain/ the comment or warning they make about civilisation and the future...

Is Lolita comparable to Ulysses i.e experimental and innovative in its use of language? or is it conventional, though beautiful, prose (like Evelyn Waugh's)?
It's famous for its prose, its content and its experimentation. I think anyone who is serious, or passionate about literature must read Lolita.

[Buh4Bee]

The subject matter is taboo, but yet people are fascinated by the book. The story is unbelievable, simply for Nabokov's ability to create such complex and psychologically strange characters. No one is innocent in his story. Ethically the subject matter is perverse, but that is why some read it.

The writing is like an age brandy or scotch, whichever you prefer. It is pleasure all the way through. It is the best of the best, finery for the mind.

Good luck and I hope you give it a try or listen to it on CD.

[PeterL]

The writing is like an age brandy or scotch, whichever you prefer. It is pleasure all the way through. It is the best of the best, finery for the mind.

No, it is more like thirty year late bottled port.

[WICKES]

It is prose perfection. I cannot do it any justice... .

If anyone has a favourite passage or even a particular line that they admire I'd appreciate them quoting it. I do love examples of exquisite writing and I'm keen to refine my appreciation of great prose.

[meh!]

I think my favourite explanation was related to Nabakov's love of solving chess problems. Pulling exquisite beauty, and taking the read with him, on a novel about raping a child was the problem that Nabakov set out to solve.

[PeterL]

If anyone has a favourite passage or even a particular line that they admire I'd appreciate them quoting it. I do love examples of exquisite writing and I'm keen to refine my appreciation of great prose.

Why don't you pick up a copy and read it. You might find that it will refine your appreciation for fine prose, and maybe for teen-aged girls also.

[Buh4Bee]

Ah yes, port!

[stlukesguild]

Lolita is a masterful work of sheer artifice. The book is the most brilliant achievement of what by all accounts should have been impossible. It is as if the author set out to do what could not be done. How does one write a novel about a pedophile... and at that time and place in history? As others have noted Nabokov employs the most exquisite use of the English language... in spite of the fact that English was not his native tongue. The work is the tale of a pedantic pedophile told by the villain that never once stoops to the vulgarity or profanity but dances with a sense of humor a light. The main character, Humbert Humbert (could there have been a better suited name?) is a pedophile... a murderer... and a rather pompous pedant... and surely one of the greatest villains in the history of literature... and yet he seduces us just as he seduces Lolita... (perhaps as Milton's Satan... the greater tempter/seducer seduces us) and we often find ourselves empathizing with his wry comments upon American culture... his humor... his sophisticated manner. In spite of Nabokov' insistence to the contrary (never trust an artist's word upon his or her art) it most certainly does make comments upon the young and vulgar America and the sophisticated and debauched Europe... while at the same time offering up an absolute love letter to the author's adoptive nation. There may certainly be better or greater works of art, but Lolita is one of those rare examples of absolute perfection.:banana:

[sixsmith]

Lolita is a masterful work of sheer artifice. The book the most brilliant achievement of the impossible. It is as if the author set out to do what could not be done. As others have noted Nabokov employs the most exquisite use of the English language... in spite of the fact that English was not his native tongue. The work is the tale of a pedantic pedophile that never once stoops to the vulgarity or profanity but dances with a sense of humor a light. The main character, Humbert Humbert (could there have been a better suited name?) is a pedophile... a murderer... and a rather pompous pedant... and yet he seduces us just as he seduces Lolita as we find ourselves empathizing with his wry comments upon American culture. In spite of Nabokov' insistence to the contrary (never trust an artist's word upon his or her art) it most certainly does make comments upon the young and vulgar America and the sophisticated and debauched Europe... while at the same time standing as an absolute love letter to the author's adoptive nation. There may certainly be better or greater works of art, but Lolita is one of those rare examples of absolute perfection.:banana:

Well said St Lukes. To wit:

I have reserved for the conclusion of my 'Annabel' phase the account of our unsuccessful first tryst. One night, she managed to deceive the vicious vigilance of her family. In a nervous and slender-leaved mimosa grove at the back of their villa we found a perch on the ruins of a low stone wall. Through the darkness and the tender trees we could see the arabesques of lighted windows which, touched up by the colored inks of sensitive memory, appear to me now like playing cards - presumably because a bridge game was keeping the enemy busy. She trembled and twitched as I kissed the corner of her parted lips and the hot lobe of her ear. A cluster of stars palely glowed above us, between the silhouettes of long thin leaves; that vibrant sky seemed as naked as she was under her light frock. I saw her face in the sky, strangely distinct, as if it emitted a faint radiance of its own. Her legs, her lovely live legs, were not too close together, and when my hand located what it sought, a dreamy and eerie expression, half pleasure, half-pain, came over those childish features. She sat a little higher than I, and whenever in her solitary ecstasy she was led to kiss me her head would bend with a sleepy, soft, drooping movement that was almost woeful, and her bare knees caught and compressed my wrist, and slackened again; and her quivering mouth, distorted by the acridity of some mysterious potion, with a sibilant intake of breath came near to my face. She would try to relieve the pain of love by first roughly rubbing her dry lips against mine; then my darling would draw away with a nervous toss of her hair, and then again come darkly near and let me feed on her open mouth, while with a generosity that was ready to offer her everything, my heart, my throat, my entrails, I gave her to hold in her awkward fist the scepter of my passion.

[JCamilo]

Stlukes,
I think I recall an interview by Nabokov where he does say that Lolita is about american society, specifically he wanted to write a "traveling guide" of motels and cities...