I read the novel in a German translation some 20 years ago, and I thought at the time that it was the best thing ever written (haven’t read it since then, but Kafka always was a strong contender), nevermind the problematic subject matter. Now, I dimly remember a very striking evocation of abandoned love by Humbert Humbert at the end of the book in the vein of :“I would do thing x to get back Lolita’s love.” which was very powerful and impressed me much then. I went through a hurtful break-up in those days and briefly planned to use this quote on my leaving girlfriend. Instead I bought her the book. It didn’t help ;).
Anyway, these are old stories, but does that kind of quote ring a bell for anybody? The English Kindle version is on my Amazon wishlist, but I’d love to read that quote before, and I think that the Dopers are good in excavating such an obscure quote.
Wow, that’s strong stuff that I didn’t remember, but it doesn’t ring a bell. What I have in mind was a single sentence, very succinct statement, the kind of you can quote in a conversation, perhaps.
On second thought, this has to be the quote I’m looking for. I didn’t quite remember how morbid I felt at the time, but that’s heartbreak for you ;). Yeah, that’s it. Thanks.
Sorry for the double-post, but I have to comment on this:
First, it’s amazing how the Dope can resolve such an obscure inquiry, in the first post(!) (thanks again, Vinyl Turnip, you know the book). I’ve had similar success once with a vague song question. It’s astounding.
Second, how memory tricks you. I had thought that it was a profound, universal statement about lost love. After rereading it now, it’s just a sad comment on the bodily effects pregnancy will have on Lolita, and the statement itself is just a confirmation for the disgusting character of H. H. I still find it powerfully expressed, but in essence only cynical. Maybe I didn’t get it when I read it first, or maybe I did get it and only remembered the power of Nabokov’s language, and not the substance of the quote.
HH on sex with a sick lola - “her brown rose tasted of blood”.
This book as at the very top of my ‘must read again’ list…for when I get to the point in my life when I start re-reading books. Things don’t ‘get to me’, I don’t get squicked out, I can’t watch just about anything, but this book…this book really took it to a new level and it wasn’t until about the last hundred pages that got over the subject matter and realized that it was an amazingly well written book. There’s not a single sentence in this book that Nabakov didn’t sit and think about before he put pen to paper. He must have worn out his thesaurus in the process. I’d like to read it again some day and pay more attention to the writing now that I’m ‘over’ the whole pedo thing.
Anyways, regarding the quote, I know she was pregnant (or had just had a kid) at the time, but I also wonder how much of that is because she was like 17. I mean, to him, she might as well have been all old and gross and droopy and stuff. She was practically a senior citizen. Remember, she was 12 at the beginning and I think that was to keep the readers sort of okay with it. The girls before her were even younger.
Heck, memory tricked again. I didn’t remember that the book was so graphic, or I also didn’t get it then or it was lost in translation.
That’s what I remember the book for: that it was really well written, although I only read a translation. I don’t remember to have been especially squicked out by it, but maybe some things went over my head then. Another possibility is that the novel is conflated in my memory with the Kubrick film I saw at least twice, which I gather is somewhat tamer.
Yeah, maybe the pregnancy thing is another misconception of mine, I thought so because her child is mentioned in the part before the concerning quote. Your theory makes sense.
Could go either way on that one. It’s first written in English and I have no idea how a book written this full of prose (is that the right word?) translates. But, yes, it’s very graphic. When it first came out, reviewers called it eveything from trash to porn
The movie is very much toned down. For example, in the book they go into graphic detail about their sex life…constantly, while in the movie they just hint at it a few times. In the movie HH falls in love with lolita and takes her as a lover and that’s really his only transgression while in the book he’s boinking little kids pretty much from beginning to end.
It’s probably the pregnancy thing, I never really thought about it until now. It was just one more shot at getting her back. Though, IRL, I wouldn’t suggest telling your old girlfriend that you want her back…even if she does look like crap. OTOH, that maybe he was just ahead of the times with the whole negging concept.