10 April 2010

WEEK FIFTEEN - 'LOLITA' & 'JULIUS CAESAR'

'Lolita' by Vladimir Nabokov
April 5 - 6, 352 pages

Wow. I absolutely loved this book. It is so well written. I just did not want to put it down. Well, I did sometimes, when the subject matter got a bit much. Somehow Nabokov made this story beautiful. Straight from the opening line (which I love but unfortunately don't have the space for here), this novel is lyrical even while it is distressing. 'Lolita, Lolita, Lolita, Lolita, Lolita, Lolita, Lolita, Lolita, Lolita. Repeat until page is full, printer.'

'Julius Caesar' by William Shakespeare.
April 7 - 9, 114 pages
I have always liked Shakespeare (fitting that he is my first repeat author) but partway through reading this I 'found' him. I am addicted. I want to read all of his plays. So good. 'How many ages hence / Shall this our lofty scene be acted over, / In states unborn and accents yet unknown!'
 

What an amazing week's reading. Both of these were brilliantly written. I couldn't get enough.

The first lines of 'Lolita' are: 
'Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
'She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing at four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she ws always Lolita.' Perfect.

Shakespeare really is incredible. Unfortunately I can't rewrite the whole play, so here are just a few more quotes that I enjoyed from 'Julius Caesar':

'And since you know you cannot see yourself
So well as by reflection, I, your glass,
Will modestly discover to yourself
That of yourself which you yet know not of.'

'it was Greek to me'

'not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.'

'Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.'
 

'O setting sun,
As in thy red rays thou dost sink tonight,
So in his red blood Cassius' day is set.'

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