By Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita (Penguin Classics) (New Ed) Paperback

I wanted this to add to my library as the copy I had got lost in a move

At the start of this infamous novel, Dolores Haze, or Lolita as suave, urbane paedophile Humbert Humbert calls her, is twelve years old.Apparently, this alone is enough to frighten the horses and appal many a timid reader.All I can say is, Nabokov was a scintillating writer of ecstatic prose, who happens to have written a novel on a risky subject, while in no way condoning or celebrating his central character’s behaviour.This was a controversial book in 1959, as were Ulysses and Lady Chatterley’s Lover in their day, but what are novels for if not to open up the world by sometimes speaking of dangerous, even unwholesome things?After all, the average Agatha Christie novel will include several murders, while many science fiction and horror stories, as well as historical novels, regularly deal with the most lurid subjects.I think what discomforts many shrinking violets is that Nabokov writes so damn well about a taboo subject ~ how dare he be so brilliant on such a distasteful matter!Yes, he not only writes well {something of an understatement} but in all his books ~ and Lolita is one of his most easily accessible, slipping down like a cocktail on a sultry day ~ he dazzles the reader with prose that sometimes seems super-human in its sheer shape-shifting virtuosity.This is a novel to sip and drink to the full, happy that such gorgeous prose exists, whatever its supposed subject and whatever the politically correct literature police will have you believe.A masterpiece.

How on earth can a Russian born writer pen something in English with some fluency of prose. Nabokov was a genius and his book is really next level writing. He stands at a distance, applies symbolism and never descends to the obvious crudities of moralistic denunciation. He respects the reader’s intelligence and writes a witty, almost amoral piece on an issue that almost explodes with controversy. That takes serious skill and it’s a stunning work. I only docked it points because I didn’t entirely ‘enjoy’ the book in spite of its undoubted brilliance.