Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

This book published in 1955 was scorned at for its very controversial subject and has ever since been in the  eye of the storm. This book for me was no way an erotic book. Yes, it has a lingering presence of child abuse throughout the book but it is after all a book about Love and Longing for a person.

I felt the protagonist H.H was not a heartless pedophile but a man who was scarred by the death of his childhood sweetheart, Annabel and looked for her among the children who played in the gardens and that gave him a sense of satisfaction and he wished to court them as he had once wished to court his Annabel. He seemed to have gone crazy and having grown into a man was still in love with his KID girlfriend and hence his tendencies.

The first part of the book was splendid and it kept me interested as to how he reached USA and found Annabel in Doloris. He had finally fallen in love again with Annabel, but a mere reincarnation of her as a 13 year old girl. H.H was indeed insolent as in one of the lines he says that he would court Lolita only for 3 years and then court the children she gives birth to. The way he traveled  all around the country with her and the way the author made sure that the entire USA was put into words for the readers to virtually live it through his book. But then those intricate details were stretched for far too long in the second part.

The second part lost the sheen and the glue the first part provided me with. The book started to get dull but it was still contained by a good piece of writing. This part paved a way for the development of insecurities in Humbert and how he wanted to keep Lo for himself and consisted of a little bit of  mystery as to who that man was. It also shows in one of the lines that Lo who initially hated Humbert and the love they made had started to accept that it as it was the only option she had and portrayed that she enjoyed it.l(she is always at loggerheads with H.H, being a teenager that's understood and also assuming the fact that she was molested by H.H, trauma and mental imbalances also could have been a case.)

Coming to the end I felt H.H was initially just being a man who loved Annabel and longed for her and eventually found her in Doloris. Not wanting to loose her(Annabel) again he hired a detective to look for her(Doloris/Annabel). He had fallen in love with a girl who he wanted to spend his life with. What else would explain his killing instincts and the offer he made a pregnant Lo, while crying?

Neither did he court a girl nor abused one after Lo left him, rather settled down with Rita.

Overall this book promised a great deal when it started but the fire eventually fizzled out by the time I reached the end and it again picked up before the book ends.

I loved the entire plot but the book seemed not something I would re-read. It is no doubt a classic and to explore such a topic in that time Vladimir Nabokov needed guts and that he possessed.