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Interviews | December 1, 2009

Megan: IMG A Meaty Tale: The Powells.com Interview with Julie Powell

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juliepowellJulie Powell charmed readers with Julie and Julia, in which she chronicled her quest to cook, in one year, every recipe out of Julia Child's... Continue »
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    Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession

    Julie Powell

Lolita

by Vladimir Nabokov

Lolita Cover

ISBN13: 9780679723165
ISBN10: 0679723161
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

Only 1 left in stock at $9.50!

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Awe and exhiliration — along with heartbreak and mordant wit — abound in Lolita, Nabokov's most famous and controversial novel, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert's obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion 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.

Review:

"It is a distinguished novel." Graham Greene

Review:

"Lolita is a fine book, a distinguished book — all right then — a great book." Dorothy Parker, Esquire

Review:

"Passions never burned so feverishly as in this, the great and perverse love story of our times." Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World

Synopsis:

Nabokov's notorious erotic murder mystery takes the form of a monologue by his hero, Humbert Humbert, as he attempts to justify his love for and obsession with the barely adolescent Lolita. Humbert Humbert is contrasted with the evil Quilty, who pursues Lolita not out of love but out of lust and selfishness, and who functions as a kind of double for the more pure-hearted (if perverse) Humbert — and whom Humbert must murder in the end.
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About the Author

Vladimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1899. After studying French and Russian literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, he launched his literary career in Berlin and Paris. In 1940 he moved to the United States, here he achieved renown as a novelist, poet, critic, and translator. Lolita, arguably his most famous novel, was first published, by the Olympia Press, Paris, on September 15, 1955, and became a controversial success. Nabokov died in Montreux Switzerland in 1977.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
megcampbell3, January 27, 2008 (view all comments by megcampbell3)
It seems nothing new can be said about Nabokov's masterpiece "Lolita", because if it hasn't been printed, surely it has been uttered by someone, somewhere. With so many different angles and aftertastes on so widely-read a novel, I almost feel the need to be careful in this silly little reader's review rather than off-the-cuff about my first acquainting. With that in mind, I'll say then that I'm sure I'll read it again, and possibly yet again, to scour and scratch at the layers, the innuendo, the objective, the subjective. Beyond initial gasps and shocks, beyond the equally wicked thrills of meeting Humbert Humbert (whose voice is a much sharper, smarter, bigger and more refined Truman Capote) and Dolly (Dolores) "Lo-Lee-Ta" Haze, the prose is razzle-dazzle, the plot is a hell of a ride, and the range of emotions invoked while traveling through these 300-some pages are all over the map. If it's on your shelf, read it. If it's not, buy it, and then actually read it. My first thought after turning the last page: I'm glad I lived long enough to have read this book. Prior, and unbeknownst to me (as with all discovery), I was missing a piece.
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Jennifer Short, January 10, 2008 (view all comments by Jennifer Short)
Called "brilliant" and "scandalous" and everything in between, this is Nabokov's crowning work. While the subject matter is a bit taboo, even today, the writing is excellent and you'll lose yourself in the book while you're wondering if Lolita is seducing Mr. Humbert, or if Mr. Humbert is seducing Lolita. A must read!
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SteveAugustine, May 23, 2006 (view all comments by SteveAugustine)
Before 'Lolita's' first publication, Nabokov himself insisted that there should be no little girl on the book's cover; he didn't want anyone buying the book for the obvious reason. Yet, as we see, the cover gets 'sexier' with every new edition. Pretty nice lips on this one. Creepy.

One of those books, like 'Ulysses' and 'Underworld,' that many bookish people feature in their libraries and very few have actually read from cover to cover. Nabokov, ever the cryptographer, hid things even from those who have; I'll bet you you didn't know that you've been pronouncing the book's title incorrectly all these years, did you?

Great book. Knew a woman who knew the actress who played the eponymous heroine in the synonymous film: Sue Lyon. Poor girl ended up a waitress!

Mrs. Dick Schiller indeed. Buy this book and think of her!
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780679723165
Author:
Nabokov, Vladimir
Publisher:
Vintage Books USA
Location:
New York :
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Middle aged men
Subject:
Classics
Subject:
Continental european fiction (fictional works
Subject:
Girls
Subject:
Love stories
Subject:
Erotic stories
Copyright:
c195
Edition Number:
2
Edition Description:
1st Vintage international ed.
Series:
Vintage International (Paperback)
Series Volume:
0000
Publication Date:
March 1989
Binding:
Paperback
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
336
Dimensions:
8.03x5.21x.77 in. .57 lbs.
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