Lolita - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis

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From plot debriefs to key motifs, Thug Notes’ Lolita Summary & Analysis has you covered with themes, symbols, important quotes, and more.

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Pop Psych:

[lucasasullivan]

"Man this nasty y'all." - Best quote ever.

[Jess-zmxt]

It's sad that the only review that isn't romanticizing this story is this guy. He doesn't call it a love story and makes it hilarious

[JaredMV]

"I hope you like R. Kelly" AHAHAHA

[jordynshumpert]

"Must be this tall to ride" DECEASED

[CloudCuckooCountry]

"First thing you best recognize is that we dealin' with the king of unreliable narrators up in this text."
I cried laughing.

[Marshmallow_Trees]

Whoever thinks Lolita is a love story has obviously never read Lolita. Book is genuinely upsetting.

[LuisTheFilmHack]

This turned out to be the most mind-bending book I ever read. Humbert's narrative is difficult to believe, excessively erudite and twisted as hell. Also, Lolita's death in the end actually pissed me off. The 1997 movie left me with the feeling I had witnessed a series crimes for which nobody was punished except for Lolita, who was the victim.

[thaloh]

The theme of Lolita = Tyranny from the POV of the tyrant. Once you realize that, it makes reading it that much more interesting.

[briannabrittany]

10/10 for this review. "Lolita" is one of the best books I've ever read, for all the reasons you gave, and more. It shows how easily people can be manipulated with "pretty" words. It shows why propaganda is effective: take a monstrous situation and spin it and make it sound normal and natural. It shows how pedophiles get away with what they're doing, through all their tricks of being charming, lying, rationalizing, playing mind games. It shows that humor is seductive, lecturing is not. I can't think of any other book I've read that pulled me so quickly into the narrator's mindset, cheering for the bad guy, even though I knew everything he was doing was horrific and he was not to be trusted. But to be clear - Nabokov does not romanticize Humbert; there comes a moment at one point in the novel where you step back and look at what's going on, and you come back to your senses. It's a sucker punch, but so brilliantly done.

[bologna]

Humbert not only manipulates you, he's also mocking you. He mentions at the beginning that he took pleasure in driving psychologists up the wall with crazy reasons behind his perversion and that's pretty much all he does to the reader throughout the entire book.

[likeddness]

Really disgusted by some of the comments trying to make Humbert the victim. I think this, from the author himself, says a lot about the book:
“As far as I can recall, the initial shiver of inspiration [for Lolita] was somehow prompted by a newspaper story about an ape in the Jardin des Plantes, who, after months of coaxing by a scientist, produced the first drawing ever charcoaled by an animal: this sketch showed the bars of the poor creature's cage.” - Vladimir Nabokov

[EL-jqsq]

This book is great, so long as you have three things in mind: a) Pedophilia is wrong (I hope we can all agree on that), b) The narrator is SUPER unreliable (and misogynistic, he's just super shitty to both girls and adult women) and c) Dolores is the victim. With all this in mind it's a fantastic book that truly gets in the mind of the narrator and messes around with the reader's head.

[codytoads]

But in the end is Lolita really free?
SPOILER
Yes, technically Lo is free from Humbert when she gets married, but she soon eventually dies after giving birth. Not to mention the story of how Humbert ruined her life is immortalized in Humbert's memoirs. Humbert even says that this story, "is the only immortality you and I may share" So, in a way, Lolita is never free from what Humbert did to her.

[katykate]

I’m glad I read this book. I was seeing an “older” dude (40), and he kept going on and on about how young I looked for my age. (28 at the time) First I was flattered, but then it got more and more creepy. After our second date he texted me “Goodnight my little nymphette” and I was like NOOOPE... I would have had no clue what he was talking about if it wasn’t for this book.

Consensual age play is one thing (no kink shaming) but this was very one sided and he also had a teenage daughter who constantly had friends over... Hubert Vibes for sure ☠️

[Ebrill_Owen]

There’s a lot of comments trashing the book but I’d just like to point out that Nabokov wrote the book as a satirical warning. Humbert Humbert is a villain just as Nabokov intended. If you see him as relatable/misunderstood, then that’s YOUR problem and not the author’s!

[levityoflonging]

I heard recently that Vladimir Nabokov was adamant that the cover not feature a girl, and I think it's such a shame that just about every copy I've seen has gone against his wishes. And I think that and the unfaithful film adaptions are a big reason so many people misintrepret this book. He said: "I want pure colors, melting clouds, accurately drawn details, a sunburst above a receding road with the light reflected in furrows and ruts, after rain. And no girls. … Who would be capable of creating a romantic, delicately drawn, non-Freudian and non-juvenile, picture for LOLITA (a dissolving remoteness, a soft American landscape, a nostalgic highway—that sort of thing)? There is one subject which I am emphatically opposed to: any kind of representation of a little girl."

[bmerio]

"Hope you like R. Kelly" Ha! Best way to introduce this book. Great analysis of the book. Found the book disturbing the first time I ride it, then hilarious the second.

[thelredtheunready]

I love how they use baroque music in this series.

[MrLightPuffPass]

Hope you like R Kelly cause we be baggin jailbait. Lmfao you sir are fucking awesome.

[Ancor]

Before I watch thug notes I get my monocle, my curleh mustage and some tea.
Like a gentleman would do.