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Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita

Lolita, that monkey!

And speaking of tidbits, it is only a few lines prior to Humbert's humorous fantasy that we learn a little bit more about what Lo actually looks like, for those who are interested (p65),
"...the Lolita of the strident voice and the rich brown hair - of the bangs and the swirls at the side and the curls at the back, and the sticky hot neck, and the vulgar vocabulary -- "revolting," "super," "luscious," "goon," "drip" -- that Lolita, my Lolita ..."
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I don't think the style of her hair is ever again mentioned.
--
And earlier still, at he beginning of the couch scene we notice again a reference to her as a monkey (p58),
"Humbert intercepted the apple.
"Give it back," she pleaded, " showing the marbled flush of her palms. I produced Delicious. She grasped it and bit into it, and my heart was like snow under thin crimson skin, and with the monkeyish nimbleness that was so typical of that American nymphet she snatched out of my abstract grip the magazine I had opened.."
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I think that is the third such allusion, pontalba, if you are counting :) I'm surprised that nowhere that I can recall did he ever actually call her "my little monkey," (?)
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Thus are the little glimpses that put her together for us sprinkled throughout the text,

Peder
 
If faulty memory serves semi correctly, Mason and Irons have somewhat of the same timbre to their voices?
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I'll bet you're right, pontalba. I'm probably just a sucker for that particular accent. Let me know if you don't agree with me that Irons doesn't hit one clinker as he reads the novel. He patently knows his Humbert through and through.
 
Peder said:
And speaking of tidbits, it is only a few lines prior to Humbert's humorous fantasy that we learn a little bit more about what Lo actually looks like, for those who are interested (p65),

I don't think the style of her hair is ever again mentioned.
--
And earlier still, at he beginning of the couch scene we notice again a reference to her as a monkey (p58),

I think that is the third such allusion, pontalba, if you are counting :) I'm surprised that nowhere that I can recall did he ever actually call her "my little monkey," (?)
--
Thus are the little glimpses that put her together for us sprinkled throughout the text,

Peder
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With every rereading I am more convinced that there is hardly a single sentence that doesn't have some secondary allusion, literary or otherwise, which went straight over my head the time before. Thank heavens for the rest of you with your incredibly keen minds and eyes.
 
StillILearn said:
Peder, sometimes I think you're just about as funny! Have I said that I really can't thank you enough for adding so much to my own appreciation and enjoyment of this book?

Aside: In my mind "D.P." stands for "deported person", don't you think?

Now I'm wondering how much more I'd be getting out of the novel if I spoke at least one more language, (French, f'rinstance.)
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StillILearn,
Thank you! I'm glad if you find it enjoyable. I add to my own enjoyment by rereading, noticing little things and letting my mind wander to imagine what VN might be up to. Appel pretty much gives translations, but I imagine fluent French would no doubt help. Berthe of the big foot is his. Actually I see I got it slightly wrong, but his note says,
"Berthe au Grand Pied: Berthe (or Bertrade) with the Big Feet (or Bigfoot Bertha); the epithet is not pejorative. A french historical figure (d.783) she was Pepin le Bref's wife and Charlemagne's mother..."
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which I have to chuckle at also. Because I can't possibly imagine VN coming across Bigfoot Bertha in his reading and not making a very firm mental (and written) note to work the name into his writing somehow. It is just too rich to pass by!

And Appel also gives
D.P.: during and after World War II, refugees were officially described as "Displaced Persons"; hence "D.P."s
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The richness of his writing is indeed fascinating.
Peder
 
Peder No, I don't recall HH calling her directly my little monkey either. It was always something like monkeyish paw, or nimbleness as you mention. Apples, apples, and more apples, but I still don't think the Garden of Eden scenario fits.

StillILearn I don't mean the accent, although it surely is very similar. I meant the actual sound of the voices. Mellow, deepish without being waaayy down there. Mellow. I was just re-playing portions of the first disc. The sarcastic overtones, without being too much are right on target. :)
 
:( On a sad note, Shelley Winters, the quintessential Big Haze died today. I cannot believe she didn't get an award for that role. She did win two others, but upon not hearing Lolita I dismissed the rest.

She even physically fit the role IMO. Squarish, etc.
 
pontalba said:
:( On a sad note, Shelley Winters, the quintessential Big Haze died today. I cannot believe she didn't get an award for that role. She did win two others, but upon not hearing Lolita I dismissed the rest.

She even physically fit the role IMO. Squarish, etc.
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Omigosh! Well, well, well. Hm.

I think we should hold our very own tribute to her here. I read her autobiography (memoir, maybe) some time ago, and I found it to be extremely entertaining and memorable. She was some sexy gal in real life, and she'll certainly go down in history as the embodiment of Charlotte Haze.

When VN talks about Charlotte's characteristics and behavior I always envision Winters pouting and preening. And who else could ever look so wounded? And could she ever bat her eyelashes? Imagine seeing anybody else when you read "glad eyes up, sad eyes down" when Charlotte was taking photos. Did I get that right? I have my dog-eared Appels right here beside me, and StillI miss things:

D.P.: during and after World War II, refugees were officially described as "Displaced Persons"; hence "D.P."s
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I'm sure somebody can do better than this:

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...lley+winters&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&sa=G

:rolleyes:

“I think on-stage nudity is disgusting, shameful and damaging to all things American. But if I were 22 with a great body, it would be artistic, tasteful, patriotic and a progressive religious experience.”
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“It was so cold I almost got married”
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“Whenever you want to marry someone, go have lunch with his ex-wife”
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“I'm not overweight. I'm just nine inches too short.”
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Peder said:
Steffee,
Nabokov may well turn into a keeper for you, but it wouldn't surprise me Proust could also. You should at least read the opening paragraph on the madeleine once in your lifetime, just for itself. But that might also be enough to get you hooked.

'Everyone' knows about the madeleine, but reading the paragraph will put you miles ahead of all those who only know about it without having actually read the paragraph. :rolleyes: :cool: :rolleyes: :)
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I, er... haven't heard of "the madeleine" :eek: I think I need to do some amazoning... I have heard of the "Proust Effect" though, and that alone makes me want to taste it, or sniff it!
 
StillILearn said:
Peder, sometimes I think you're just about as funny! Have I said that I really can't thank you enough for adding so much to my own appreciation and enjoyment of this book?
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Ditto! I want to thank everyone who has posted on this thread, even those before I joined and read the entire thread, for making Lolita a so much better reading experience. This has been (and still is!) a fantastic thread. :D
 
Oscar winner Shelley Winters dies at 85
1/14/2006, 1:20 p.m. PT
By BOB THOMAS
The Associated Press

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Shelley Winters, the forceful, outspoken star who graduated from blond bombshell parts to dramas, winning Academy Awards as supporting actress in "The Diary of Anne Frank" and "A Patch of Blue," has died. She was 85.

Winters died of heart failure early Saturday at The Rehabilitation Centre of Beverly Hills, her publicist Dale Olson said. She had been hospitalized in October after suffering a heart attack.

The actress sustained her long career by repeatedly reinventing herself. Starting as a nightclub chorus girl, advanced to supporting roles in New York plays, then became famous as a Hollywood sexpot.

A devotee of the Actors Studio, she switched to serious roles as she matured. Her Oscars were for her portrayal of mothers. Still working well into her 70s, she had a recurring role as Roseanne's grandmother on the 1990s TV show "Roseanne."

"Shelley was idol of mine — and many — an extraordinary woman with powerful charisma, enormous talent and a keen, perceptive mind," said longtime friend and actress Connie Stevens.

In 1959's "The Diary of Anne Frank," she was Petronella Van Daan, mother of Peter Van Daan and one of eight real-life Jewish refugees in World War II Holland who hid for more than a year in cramped quarters until they were betrayed and sent to Nazi death camps. The socially conscious Winters donated her Oscar statuette to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam.

In 1965's "Patch of Blue," she portrayed a hateful, foul-mouthed mother who tries to keep her blind daughter, who is white, apart from the kind black man who has befriended her.

Ever vocal on social and political matters, Winters was a favored guest on television talk shows, and she demonstrated her frankness in two autobiographies: "Shelley, Also Known as Shirley" (1980) and "Shelley II: The Middle of My Century" (1989).
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Winters wrote openly in them of her romances with Burt Lancaster, William Holden, Marlon Brando, Errol Flynn, Clark Gable and other leading men. She also said after she came to Hollywood in the mid-1940s she was roommates with another rising starlet — Marilyn Monroe.
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She was also in "A Place in the Sun".
 
steffee said:
LOL, I'm not sure I'd find anywhere selling it at 11pm on a Saturday night :( :( ;)
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Well, either you could pop over here as its only 5:10 p.m. here, or I suppose the most practical thing would be to wait until tomorrow.....;)

and btw, StillILearn, I saw on the link you provided that someone called Lolita, the 1962 version, a "black as coffee screwball comedy"......! Now thats one I hadn't heard! ROTFALOL!
 
pontalba said:
Well, either you could pop over here as its only 5:10 p.m. here, or I suppose the most practical thing would be to wait until tomorrow.....;)

and btw, StillILearn, I saw on the link you provided that someone called Lolita, the 1962 version, a "black as coffee screwball comedy"......! Now thats one I hadn't heard! ROTFALOL!
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Or here, where it's only 3:30 PM. ;)

"black as coffee screwball comedy"......
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Too, too funny! I guess you could say that! :D I guess anything with Peter Sellars in it would qualify.
 
pontalba = She was a pistol alright!
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What I remember her saying about Franciosa was that on the way home from getting divorced from each other, he stopped the car and asked her if she wanted to have sex then and there, and she said "Sure!" That's what I recall, anyway. :D
 
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