About the annotated edition:
For context, I have read Lolita about 10 times now, the last 2 of which were with the annotated edition. I would have to break with the advice of many of the other reviewers here and actually recommend this edition even for first time readers, although only for the French translations on a first reading (there is a lot of French in the novel, which can be confusing and frustrating without translation).
For those who have read the novel before, however, the additional annotations are of great interest and help to reveal how unbelievably rich the text is with references to other writers, characters, events, etc. Even after reading the novel many times over, there were literally hundreds of references that I would never have noted were it not for these annotations. As a small example, the most immediately helpful of these for me was an explanation of Carmen and how the various references to it function in the text.
About the novel as a whole:
Lolita is my favorite novel. The "pedophilia" is certainly the most immediately noticeable and shocking feature of the work, but I think this aspect is sometimes focused on too much. The novel is much richer emotionally than such a cursory description of its subject matter might lead one to believe. It is nostalgic and plaintive, wistful, comic at times, yet with a deep sustained undercurrent of longing and regret. Nabokov's use of language is, to my mind, unmatched, and the prose is often strikingly beautiful in its own right, yet the narrative is also brilliantly structured.
Having just finished rereading Lolita, I am once again almost overcome with emotion. That, to me, is the great power of this book -- its ability to elicit an emotional response; to make the reader feel deeply for a main character who is monstrous in many ways. In particular, Humbert's visit to Coalmont late in the novel moves me nearly to tears every time I read it.
There are few books I revisit again and again, but Lolita is at the top of that list. I cannot recommend it highly enough. I hope that anyone who might happen to read this who is put off by the idea of the subject matter will give it a chance -- it is not racy, nor voyeuristic, nor crude, but rather deeply contemplative and moving. It is one of the greatest novels ever written, by one of the greatest writers ever to have lived.
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Reviews with images
Footnote error with Kindle version
Chapter 21, page 89 has a footnote error: "Ce qui me rend folle, c'est que je ne sais à quoi tu penses quand tu es comme ça [4]." This footnote n points to n-1 and all footnotes following for the rest of the book. Could someone fix this please.
Top reviews from other countries
Vikki
Excellent annotated version
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 3, 2015
