When you read Nabokov's Lolita, did it disturb you? or did you just find it fascinating?

Question

i'm 14, with a very advanced level reading (on some test it said i was at a Junior in college level reading) but is it too much for a 14 year old?

Answer 1

I didn't read the book, but I saw the movie with James Mason and Sue Lyon shortly after its release in 1962.  I found the movie to be very disturbing and felt embarrassed for James Mason to see him cast as such a weak character in "Lolita" after seeing him play Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in "The Desert Fox" (1951) and the villain Phillip Vandamm in "North by Northwest" (1959).  

Answer 2

wtf is Navokov's Lolita?

Answer 3

Lolita is a disturbing book.  And it's a difficult read, even for a junior in college.  It's an unapologetically modernist book.  I recommend getting one of the annotated editions, and to have a good dictionary, and french to english dictionary.  The story line is very disconcerting, and the protagonist has no redeemable qualities - he's just a monster, a sick freak.

But the book is rightly considered one of the best ever written.  If you are interested in literature or writing - you will eventually have to deal with this book.  It's brilliantly written, and it's flawless story telling in all regards.

Personally - I wouldn't let you read it.  I've said before that this is one book I will never complain about being banned from schools.  Not because of the story line necessarily, but because even Lolita is an unrepentantly stupid character.  And the way some teenage girls respond to what they read, I'd prefer they be well mature before reading it.

If you do read it, just realize that both characters are wrong, and nothing they do should be emulated.  It's a great book though, I just strongly feel it shouldn't be read by someone under, at least, 16.