No, it is not my sense of the immorality of the Humbert Humbert-Lolita relationship that is strong; it is Humbert's sense. He cares, I do not. I do not give a damn for public morals, in America or elsewhere. And, anyway, cases of men in their forties marrying girls in their teens or early twenties have no bearing on Lolita whatever. Humbert was fond of "little girls"—not simply "young girls." Nymphets are girl-children, not starlets and "sex kittens." Lolita was twelve, not eighteen, when Humbert met her. You may remember that by the time she is fourteen, he refers to her as his "aging mistress.
Vladimir NabokovTags: morality lolita nymphets starlets
One night between sunset and river
On the old bridge we stood, you and I.
Will you ever forget it, I queried,
- That particular swift that went by?
And you answered, so earnestly: Never!
And what sobs made us suddenly shiver,
What a cry life emitted in flight!
Till we die, till tomorrow, for ever,
You and I on the old bridge one night.
... всё гасло на гибельном словесном сквозняке, а я продолжал вращать эпитеты, налаживать рифму, не замечая разрыва, унижения, измены, - как человек, рассказывающий свой сон (как всякий сон, бесконечно свободный и сложный, но сворачивающийся как кровь, по пробуждении), незаметно для себя и для слушателей округляет, подчищает, одевает его по моде ходячего бытия, и если начинает так: "Мне снилось, что я сижу у себя в комнате", чудовищно опошляет приемы сновидения, подразумевая, что она была обставлена совершенно так, как его комната наяву.
Vladimir NabokovВ полдень послышался клюнувший ключ.
Vladimir NabokovVladimir Nabokov
There is nothing so banal in the world,' said Ada 'than pitching stones at a hawfinch.
Vladimir NabokovTags: the-best-sentence-i-ve-ever-read
She was an extravagantly slender girl. Her ribs showed. The conspicuous knobs of her hipbones framed a hollowed abdomen, so flat as to belie the notion of "belly." Her exquisite bone structure immediately slipped into a novel - became in fact the secret structure of that novel, besides supporting a number of poems.
Vladimir NabokovTags: nabokov
Life is just one small piece of light between two eternal darknesses.
Vladimir NabokovTags: humorous erotic insprirational
That man, especially when he slept, when his features were motionless, showed me my own face, my mask, the flawlessly pure image of my corpse […] in a state of perfect repose, this resemblance was strikingly evident, and what is death, if not a face at peace – its artistic perfection? Life only marred my double; thus a breeze dims the bliss of Narcissus; thus, in the painter’s absence, there comes his pupil and by the superfluous flush of unbidden tints disfigures the portrait painted by the master.
Vladimir NabokovTags: doppelgänger
Some people-and I am one of them-hate happy ends. We feel cheated. Harm is the norm. Doom should not jam.
Vladimir Nabokov« first previous
Page 55 of 68.
next last »
Data privacy
Imprint
Contact
Diese Website verwendet Cookies, um Ihnen die bestmögliche Funktionalität bieten zu können.