Reading Lolita, Again and Again
“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.”
This is the opening line of Vladimir Nabokov’s breakthrough novel Lolita, the story of a man who has a love affair with a
12-year-old girl.Disgusting, right? Well, for decades, this supposedly filthy novel has been my absolutely favorite book. One has to read it to understand. Nabokov’s prose seduces the reader into seeing the man (Humbert)’s completely outrageous and criminal point of view. It is an amazing masterpiece and even more astounding when one realizes that Nabokov learned English later in life.
I picked up Lolita when I was 16 and have had my own tumultuous love affair with the book. I loved it from the start but also recognized the outrageousness of its topic. Later, as my feminism matured, I tried to reject the book completely. But a year or so ago, I returned to the book. Actually, it was a series of CDs featuring Jeremy Iron’s narration that brought me back. He is the perfect Humbert.
From time to time, I'll pick up Lolita whenever I want to review how a master uses the English language. And now I’ve accepted my utter infatuation with the book, my sin, my soul.
