Vladimir Nabokov

Boyd, Brian. "Even Homais Nods": Nabokov's Fallibility, or, How to Revise Lolita. 1995

Author(s)
Bibliographic title
"Even Homais Nods": Nabokov's Fallibility, or, How to Revise Lolita
Periodical or collection
Nabokov Studies
Periodical issue
v. 2
Page(s)
62-86
Publication year
Abstract
Argues against the supposition, independently arrived at by a number of major Nabokov scholars, that some part of the late story of Lolita, from Humbert's receipt of the married Lolita's letter onwards, is invented or fantasized by Humbert, simply on the basis of a three-day discrepancy in tallying days, when Nabokov is very capable in many works of making comparable errors he admitted as errors. The essay discussions the lack of evidence, the lack of agreement, and the disastrous literary and ethical consequences of the "revisionist" readings.