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"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."
-- "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov
Ah, that famous beginning, again! This time it is for real, though, in the sense that I mean to book-blog it. Yet, I feel particularly intimidated by this text. About 90% of the book compels quotation, and it really is a complex work that is way over my woozy head. But it is also much closer to my heart, being such a provocative combination or entanglement of the foulest perversion and the highest art. If it is not my number-one favorite novel, it is at least on a very short list.
Of course, all lovers of “Lolita” know that the book does not actually begin with this beginning. Humbert Humbert, our pedophile-protagonist and narrator is dead by the time we read this confession of his. We have a prefatory note that will explain all of this, though it too is fictional and part of the novel. (See what I mean about the complexity?) And we will go back and start there at the true beginning before coming back and picking up the main thread of this tale anew.
"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."
-- "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov
Ah, that famous beginning, again! This time it is for real, though, in the sense that I mean to book-blog it. Yet, I feel particularly intimidated by this text. About 90% of the book compels quotation, and it really is a complex work that is way over my woozy head. But it is also much closer to my heart, being such a provocative combination or entanglement of the foulest perversion and the highest art. If it is not my number-one favorite novel, it is at least on a very short list.
Of course, all lovers of “Lolita” know that the book does not actually begin with this beginning. Humbert Humbert, our pedophile-protagonist and narrator is dead by the time we read this confession of his. We have a prefatory note that will explain all of this, though it too is fictional and part of the novel. (See what I mean about the complexity?) And we will go back and start there at the true beginning before coming back and picking up the main thread of this tale anew.
