Decided to read this for two reasons; Rick was reading it, and I was perusing various "Top 100 books of all time" lists, and decided I ought to knock off a couple of 'em. Actually I listened to it on CD, read by Jeremy Irons, no less. Superb choice in reader. My god.
Fascinating and disturbing work. Nabokov writes with great mastery. The section in which Humbert and Dolly are driving all around the US is utter beauty; the litany of the constantly changing landscape rolls out before the reader like the road itself. As for the relationship, it is clear that 12-year-old "Lolita" is not what he thinks she is, what he projects onto her. Her struggle and misery come across to the reader although not to the criminally blind Humbert; he sees only what he wants to see, until later in more pensive moments he begins to comprehend. The scene that really struck me was one in which he watches her play tennis and ponders her perfect form, the beauty of her play... and her lack of desire to win, and thinks to himself that it is because he broke something in her.
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