Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0026573, Tue, 27 Oct 2015 23:04:19 -0400

Subject
The name of Lolita
Date
Body
Maurice Couturier writes:

Dear List,

Jansy says that "it is highly possible that VN had read Lichberg’s
'Lolita'”. Maybe, but Nabokov had plenty of possible sources for the
name; he himself mentioned that it occurs in "Monte Cristo". In a
previous mail, I gave a list of books published in France before 1955
with "Lolita" in their titles, one Henri Houssaye's "Lolita" (1945)
telling a story close to that of "Transparent Things", but Brian says
that Nabokov mentioned it much later in his diary. I have discovered yet
another book with a character named Lolita, Pierre L'Hermite's "Comment
j'ai tué mon enfant" (a good subtitle for Nabokov's novel, by the way).
Lichberg's story has a great deal less in common with VN's "Lolita" than
many of the books I have just mentioned. And of course, there is Valéry
Larbaud's long deconstruction of the name Lolita dated 1927. The
publicity given to Maar's book has always amazed me.

Maurice Couturier
.


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