Lolita

by Vladimir Nabokov

Recommended in 11 interviews and reading lists

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Who recommends it

1. Annie DukeInterview

   So many. I haven’t really answered much about books I read as a teenager and in college (other than Animal Farm). Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy.

2. The Best Classic Novels For BeginnersReading list

   In an age in which likeable characters are stressed as non-negotiable components of “good” novels, Lolita is a stellar example to the contrary: a compelling narrative told from the perspective of a reprehensible, sociopathic paedophile. The book is a master class on voice, dialogue, and plot momentum. You know a book…

3. Ellen DatlowInterview

   Happily, my parents encouraged me to read whatever I chose to at whatever age I chose to. This led to my reading books that were probably too “old” for me in the sense that I wasn’t ready for them. For example, I read Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov when I was young and didn’t really get what a horror story it is. I reread…

4. Ramsey CampbellInterview

   Reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov when I’d just turned seventeen was a revelation – the joy in language, the discovery of comedy in the unlikeliest places, the use of words to make you look afresh. Virtually overnight it changed my own approach to writing, and (along with Graham Greene’s novels) persuaded me that I…

5. Chigozie ObiomaInterview

   I think of great books like Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy as books everyone should read. I also will add Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock and Seasons of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih.

6. Kayla Rae WhitakerInterview

   Light in August and As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor, The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Neil Strauss, Divine Right’s Trip by Gurney Norman, IT and The Stand by Stephen King, The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather, Fun…

7. Benjamin MurphyInterview

   Money by Martin Amis, The Fall and The Stranger by Albert Camus, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Molloy by Samuel Beckett and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

8. Dale AdcockInterview
9. Adam MartinakisInterview

   Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Slowness by Milan Kundera, Death in Venice by Thomas Mann, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo, Platform by Michel Houellebecq, Shikasta by Doris Lessing, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, De Profundis by Oscar Wilde, Cannery Row by John…

10. Paul WilliamsInterview

    I tend to read a number of books at once, and these are connected to what I am writing and teaching, so I am reading Stephen King’s Misery; Wifedom by Anna Funder; re-reading Lolita, Harry Potter, Catcher in the Rye.

11. Tamler SommersInterview

    I’ve read most of my favorite books at least three times. I’ve read Lolita and Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabakov five or six times each. I have a greater appreciation for books when I reread them. And my memory’s not great, so when I go back to something like War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy after 6 or 7 years, it’s almost…

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