13. “Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov

I have officially picked up a copy of my first reading list book, and boy was it tough to not rifle my way through the entirety of Barnes & Noble to find more treasures! There’s just something so exciting about book stores. But more to the point, from the title of this post I’m sure you’ve already figured out the first book I’ve selected is Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Prior to reading the back of the book, which doesn’t give too much additional information, I didn’t know much about Lolita beyond it being considered a controversial novel about a taboo romantic relationship (likely with a young girl judging by the word “lolita”).

“Awe and exhilaration – along with heartbreak and mordant wit – abound in Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov’s most famous and controversial novel, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert’s obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Most of all, it is a meditation on love – love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.” 

Also from the back of the book is a little snippet about Mr. Nabokov.

“Vladimir Nabokov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1899. He studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, and launched his literary career in Berlin and Paris. in 1940 he moved to the United States, where he achieved renown as a novelist, poet, critic, and translator. Lolita was first published by the Olympia Press, Paris, on September 15, 1955. Nabokov died in Montreux, Switzerland in 1977.”