I recently read Lolita and was really conflicted as to whether I liked it or not. In one sense it was an uncomfortable read but I found I couldn’t put it down. I see a lot of people saying that they hate it because Humbert is such a monster but surely that’s the point? Nabokov makes it such an uncomfortable read through putting it in first person; we are meant to slightly sympathise with Humbert (because of his unreliable narration) and then feel disgusted with ourselves. Combined with the ‘American Dream’/Academia/Psychological Thriller aesthetic it’s almost as much a mockery of society and its romanticisation of crime as The Secret History. This is even proven by Lolita’s resurgence in popular aesthetics and romanticisation.
The whole point of the book is to make the reader uncomfortable and dislike Humbert, so by that point of view I found it pure genius. However the discomfort and dislike for Humbert made it very hard for me to finish the book, so by that point of view not very successful. Both things considered, Lolita is clearly not a book conceived for entertainment, so I give it a pass for being hard to finish. Overall I consider it a great book but I would never read it again