Lolita

I've been reading Nabokov's 'classic' Lolita, and I'm finding the content more than a little challenging. I'm mid-way through and I'm struggling to see why this book is so popular. The writing is beautiful for the most part but I think it's slightly verbose. I'm not against that in any way though: The God of Small Things, also highly descriptive, is one of my favourite books, but some of the description in Lolita seems pointless. I also have no idea who to empathise with, obviously what Lolita is going through is horrific, and Humbert is a criminal, but her character seems so manipulative that I can't really stand her either..... I kept hearing about how wonderful it was so I thought I'd give it a try but sometimes I think people like to pretend they love all the classics just because it sounds cool.... or maybe I just struggle to appreciate them. I'm going to trudge on because I hate leaving a book unfinished, but I do so unwillingly.