Wednesday, February 29, 2012

It was love at first sight, at last sight, at ever and ever sight.

Nabokov's prose is so beautifully written, it's the kind of book that should be read aloud.  The novel could also easily be one of the most beautiful love stories/tragedies there are, had it not been for the fact that she's friggin 12 when they first have sex.  Humbert Humbert isn't to be trusted as a narrator; he says so himself at the beginning of the book.  But I guess great literature doesn't have to be about great people... and if you read the book until the end you will realize it is not only a tale of pedophile obsession but it really is a love story.

I looked and looked at her, and I knew, as clearly as I know that I will die, that I loved her more than anything I had ever seen or imagined on earth. She was only the dead-leaf echo of the nymphet from long ago - but I loved her, this Lolita, pale and polluted and big with another man’s child. She could fade and wither - I didn’t care. I would still go mad with tenderness at the mere sight of her face.

And how charming is this first paperback edition of Lolita?!!
Controversial since its conception, Lolita was rejected by American publishing houses until finally accepted by the avant-garde Olympia Press in Paris and published in a fragile two-volume format.   (found at 7600$ in a Manhattan bookstore. O_O)



Natalie and her Olympia Le-Tan Lolita purse at the premiere of Black Swan.  Does it make you love her 10000x more or what? :D

1 comment:

  1. mmmm intéressant. jaime que tu m'apprennes des nouveaux trucs tlt

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