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Mar. 29th, 2016
Book 27 - Vladimir Nabokov "Lolita"
Mar. 29th, 2016 04:05 pmVladimir Nabokov "Lolita" (Penguin Modern Classics)
This is more of a re-read as i once read this novel way back in the eighties. In many ways, this is still a controversial book due its subject of nymphets and pedophilia Hence, the feeling of unease whilst reading it.
Lolita is narrated by Humbert Humbert, a literary scholar born in 1910 in Paris, who is obsessed with what he refers to as "nymphets". This obsession with young girls appears to have been a result of his failure to consummate an affair with a childhood sweetheart, Annabel Leigh, before her premature death from typhus. Shortly before the start of World War II, Humbert leaves Paris for New York. In 1947, he moves to Ramsdale, a small New England town, to write. When the house he was promised burns down, he ends up at the door of Charlotte Haze, a widow, who has a sexually charged interpretation of taking in a lodger. As the two make their way through Mrs. Haze's tour of the house, Humbert rehearses different ways of turning her down, but then, after being led out into the garden, he spies Haze's 12-year-old daughter Dolores (variously referred to in the novel as Dolores, Dolly, Lolita, Lola, Lo, and L) sunbathing in the garden. Humbert, seeing Annabel Leigh in her, is instantly smitten with her and eagerly agrees to rent the room.
When Lolita is at summer camp, Mrs. Haze gives Humbert an ultimatum by letter that he must marry her (for she has fallen madly in love with him) or move out. He is horrified at first, but sees living with Lolita as his stepdaughter as a way to make her part of his living fantasy. Charlotte appears oblivious to Humbert's distaste for her and his lust for Lolita until she reads his diary. Horrified and humiliated, Charlotte decides to flee with her daughter, writing letters to Humbert, Lolita, and a strict boarding school for young ladies to which she apparently intends to send her daughter. Charlotte confronts Humbert when he returns home, ignoring his protests that the diary entries are just notes for a novel, and bolts from the house to post the letters. But upon crossing the street, she is struck and killed by a passing motorist. A child retrieves the letters and gives them to Humbert, who destroys them.
Humbert picks Lolita up from camp, telling her that her mother is desperately ill in a hospital, and takes her to The Enchanted Hunters, a hotel of regional repute, where he meets a strange man (later revealed to be Clare Quilty), who seems to know who he is. Humbert intends to use sleeping pills on Lolita, but they have little effect. Instead, she seduces Humbert, and he discovers that he is not her first lover, as she has had a sexual affair at summer camp. After leaving the hotel, Humbert tells the now-troublesome Lolita that her mother is dead. Alone and frightened, Lolita has no choice but to accept Humbert into her life on his terms.
Driving Lolita around the country in Charlotte's car, moving from state to state and motel to motel, Humbert bribes the girl for sexual favors; he falls genuinely in love with her, but is conscious that she is not attracted to him and shares none of his interests. Eventually, the two settle down in another New England town, Beardsley, with Humbert posing as Lolita's father and Lolita enrolled in a private girls' school where the headmistress views Humbert's possessive supervision as that of a strict, old-world European parent.
Humbert nevertheless is persuaded to allow Lolita to take part in a school theatrical club (extracting additional sexual favors from her in exchange for his permission). Ominously, the title of the play — The Hunted Enchanters — is an inversion of the name of the hotel where he first molested her. Lolita is enthusiastic about the play and is said to have impressed the playwright, who attended a rehearsal. But before opening night, she and Humbert have a ferocious argument, and she bolts from the house. Found by Humbert a few minutes later, Lolita declares that she wants to immediately leave town and resume their travels. Humbert is delighted, but increasingly guarded as they again drive westward, nagged by a feeling that they are being followed and that Lolita knows who the follower is. He is right. Clare Quilty, an acquaintance of Charlotte's, the nephew of the local dentist in Ramsdale, and the author of the play being performed at Lolita's school, is himself a pedophile and amateur pornographer. He is tailing the couple in accordance with a secret plan of escape devised with Lolita. While Humbert becomes increasingly paranoid, Lolita becomes ill and recuperates in a nearby hospital. One night, she checks out with her "uncle", who has paid the hospital bill. Humbert, still clueless about the identity of Lolita's "abductor," makes farcical and frantic attempts to find them by inspecting various motel-register aliases, which have been laced by Quilty with insults and jokes flavored with literary allusions.
During this period, Humbert has a chaotic, two-year love-affair with a petite alcoholic named Rita who, at 30, is 10 years younger than he and a passable physical substitute for Lolita. By 1952, Humbert has settled down as a scholar at a small academic institute. One day, he receives a letter from Lolita, now 17, who tells him that she is married, pregnant, and in desperate need of funds. Armed with a gun, Humbert, still driving Charlotte's car, visits his young obsession and gives her the money she was due from her mother's estate. He also asks her to leave with him, but she refuses. During their conversation, Lolita explains that her husband, a nearly deaf war-veteran and the father of her unborn child, was not her abductor, whereupon Humbert offers to give her all the money he has if she will reveal the man's identity. Lolita complies, saying that she had really loved Clare Quilty, but that he threw her out after she refused to perform in a pornographic film he was making.
Leaving Lolita forever, Humbert surprises Quilty at his mansion. Quilty goes mad when he sees Humbert's gun. After a mutually exhausting struggle for it, Quilty, now insane with fear, merely responds politely as Humbert repeatedly shoots him. He finally dies with a comical lack of interest, expressing his slight concern in an affected English accent. Humbert is left exhausted and disoriented. Arrested for murder, he writes the book he entitles Lolita or, The Confessions of a White Widowed Male, while awaiting trial. According to the novel's fictional "Foreword", Humbert dies of coronary thrombosis upon finishing his manuscript. Lolita dies, during childbirth, on Christmas Day, 1952.
This is more of a re-read as i once read this novel way back in the eighties. In many ways, this is still a controversial book due its subject of nymphets and pedophilia Hence, the feeling of unease whilst reading it.
Lolita is narrated by Humbert Humbert, a literary scholar born in 1910 in Paris, who is obsessed with what he refers to as "nymphets". This obsession with young girls appears to have been a result of his failure to consummate an affair with a childhood sweetheart, Annabel Leigh, before her premature death from typhus. Shortly before the start of World War II, Humbert leaves Paris for New York. In 1947, he moves to Ramsdale, a small New England town, to write. When the house he was promised burns down, he ends up at the door of Charlotte Haze, a widow, who has a sexually charged interpretation of taking in a lodger. As the two make their way through Mrs. Haze's tour of the house, Humbert rehearses different ways of turning her down, but then, after being led out into the garden, he spies Haze's 12-year-old daughter Dolores (variously referred to in the novel as Dolores, Dolly, Lolita, Lola, Lo, and L) sunbathing in the garden. Humbert, seeing Annabel Leigh in her, is instantly smitten with her and eagerly agrees to rent the room.
When Lolita is at summer camp, Mrs. Haze gives Humbert an ultimatum by letter that he must marry her (for she has fallen madly in love with him) or move out. He is horrified at first, but sees living with Lolita as his stepdaughter as a way to make her part of his living fantasy. Charlotte appears oblivious to Humbert's distaste for her and his lust for Lolita until she reads his diary. Horrified and humiliated, Charlotte decides to flee with her daughter, writing letters to Humbert, Lolita, and a strict boarding school for young ladies to which she apparently intends to send her daughter. Charlotte confronts Humbert when he returns home, ignoring his protests that the diary entries are just notes for a novel, and bolts from the house to post the letters. But upon crossing the street, she is struck and killed by a passing motorist. A child retrieves the letters and gives them to Humbert, who destroys them.
Humbert picks Lolita up from camp, telling her that her mother is desperately ill in a hospital, and takes her to The Enchanted Hunters, a hotel of regional repute, where he meets a strange man (later revealed to be Clare Quilty), who seems to know who he is. Humbert intends to use sleeping pills on Lolita, but they have little effect. Instead, she seduces Humbert, and he discovers that he is not her first lover, as she has had a sexual affair at summer camp. After leaving the hotel, Humbert tells the now-troublesome Lolita that her mother is dead. Alone and frightened, Lolita has no choice but to accept Humbert into her life on his terms.
Driving Lolita around the country in Charlotte's car, moving from state to state and motel to motel, Humbert bribes the girl for sexual favors; he falls genuinely in love with her, but is conscious that she is not attracted to him and shares none of his interests. Eventually, the two settle down in another New England town, Beardsley, with Humbert posing as Lolita's father and Lolita enrolled in a private girls' school where the headmistress views Humbert's possessive supervision as that of a strict, old-world European parent.
Humbert nevertheless is persuaded to allow Lolita to take part in a school theatrical club (extracting additional sexual favors from her in exchange for his permission). Ominously, the title of the play — The Hunted Enchanters — is an inversion of the name of the hotel where he first molested her. Lolita is enthusiastic about the play and is said to have impressed the playwright, who attended a rehearsal. But before opening night, she and Humbert have a ferocious argument, and she bolts from the house. Found by Humbert a few minutes later, Lolita declares that she wants to immediately leave town and resume their travels. Humbert is delighted, but increasingly guarded as they again drive westward, nagged by a feeling that they are being followed and that Lolita knows who the follower is. He is right. Clare Quilty, an acquaintance of Charlotte's, the nephew of the local dentist in Ramsdale, and the author of the play being performed at Lolita's school, is himself a pedophile and amateur pornographer. He is tailing the couple in accordance with a secret plan of escape devised with Lolita. While Humbert becomes increasingly paranoid, Lolita becomes ill and recuperates in a nearby hospital. One night, she checks out with her "uncle", who has paid the hospital bill. Humbert, still clueless about the identity of Lolita's "abductor," makes farcical and frantic attempts to find them by inspecting various motel-register aliases, which have been laced by Quilty with insults and jokes flavored with literary allusions.
During this period, Humbert has a chaotic, two-year love-affair with a petite alcoholic named Rita who, at 30, is 10 years younger than he and a passable physical substitute for Lolita. By 1952, Humbert has settled down as a scholar at a small academic institute. One day, he receives a letter from Lolita, now 17, who tells him that she is married, pregnant, and in desperate need of funds. Armed with a gun, Humbert, still driving Charlotte's car, visits his young obsession and gives her the money she was due from her mother's estate. He also asks her to leave with him, but she refuses. During their conversation, Lolita explains that her husband, a nearly deaf war-veteran and the father of her unborn child, was not her abductor, whereupon Humbert offers to give her all the money he has if she will reveal the man's identity. Lolita complies, saying that she had really loved Clare Quilty, but that he threw her out after she refused to perform in a pornographic film he was making.
Leaving Lolita forever, Humbert surprises Quilty at his mansion. Quilty goes mad when he sees Humbert's gun. After a mutually exhausting struggle for it, Quilty, now insane with fear, merely responds politely as Humbert repeatedly shoots him. He finally dies with a comical lack of interest, expressing his slight concern in an affected English accent. Humbert is left exhausted and disoriented. Arrested for murder, he writes the book he entitles Lolita or, The Confessions of a White Widowed Male, while awaiting trial. According to the novel's fictional "Foreword", Humbert dies of coronary thrombosis upon finishing his manuscript. Lolita dies, during childbirth, on Christmas Day, 1952.
More on Jessica Jones
Mar. 29th, 2016 09:00 pmHaving watched three episodes of Jessica Jones already i find Tennant's portrayal of Kilgrave disturbing, twisted and very dark with a somewhat film noir tone to it, and its approach to sexuality, and coverage of darker topics such as rape, assault, and posttraumatic stress disorder which is riveting if not totally pleasurable. I doubt this is one i would watch often and my preference is still towards the more sunnier climes of Charmed, Supergirl , Flash , even Buffy and Angel, etc IMHO. Gripping though!
Any recommendations on Orphan Black?
Any recommendations on Orphan Black?
Dover Visit
Mar. 29th, 2016 11:32 pmIn Faversham i sold a few paperbacks before heading off to Dover to do a charity shop visit. The weather was sunny for most of the day except for a period around midday when it rained heavily. It did so again on my walk back from the station to the house.
At the covert shop visit i purchased a DVD, A CD and some books. The DVD was the Woody Allen film "Midnight In Paris" with Owen Wilson, Kathy Bates, Micheal Sheen and Rachel MacAdans. The CD is "Our Verizon Of Events" by Emeli Sande.
The books are -
Watched a couple of episodes of Jessica Jones tonight. Off to bed now.
At the covert shop visit i purchased a DVD, A CD and some books. The DVD was the Woody Allen film "Midnight In Paris" with Owen Wilson, Kathy Bates, Micheal Sheen and Rachel MacAdans. The CD is "Our Verizon Of Events" by Emeli Sande.
The books are -
Watched a couple of episodes of Jessica Jones tonight. Off to bed now.
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