Lolita Podcast
5.0/5
Critic Rating
Who is Lolita? The Nabokov literary classic has sparked infinite discussion in the 65 years since its release, but the cultural memory the book has left behind lives more in romance and fashion aesthetics than a cautionary tale about a deceptive predator and his young prey. Jamie Loftus wants to know how we got here, and this series traces Lolita -- the person, Dolores Haze -- from her literary origin to current status as a doomed icon.
Critic Reviews
Score: 5
Jenny Singer • Glamour • Mar 3, 2021
"Host Jamie Loftus unpacks the novel and its profound legacy with such nuance and care that it's a small miracle. Don't even consider attempting Lolita without Loftus in your pocket."
Score: 5
Phoebe Lett • New York Times • Feb 25, 2021
"Loftus maintains a cynical yet sensitive approach, carefully centering the countless survivors of childhood abuse in the decades since the publication of what originally was meant to reproach the pedophilic gaze, yet ended up signifying it."
Score: 5
Rachel Syme • New Yorker • Dec 28, 2020
"Very few books have vexed and divided more people than Vladimir Nabokov’s 1955 masterpiece, “Lolita,” the tale of a pedophile named Humbert Humbert, who is hideously obsessed with a twelve-year-old girl. ...despite its simplistic name, is a remarkably researched and complex dive into the rabbit hole of Nabokov’s work and the cultural twisting of his reputation."
