Vladimir Nabokov

NABOKV-L post 0003169, Tue, 2 Jun 1998 18:01:10 -0700

Subject
Re: Query: Nabokov, Anais Nin, Sartre (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Anatoly Vorobey <mellon@pobox.com>


> From: Kevin Burns ,<kevbur@muze.com>
>
>
> Simone de Beauvoir's book "Brigitte Bardot & the Lolita Syndrome" --ISBN
> 0405039123--is listed in Books In Print. The publication date is 1980,
> Ayer Company Publishers in their Arno Press Cinema Programs Series,
> introduction by George Amberg. Illustrated.

I skimmed through the book, in a library. It's probably a reprint of
the Esquire article (which I haven't seen), Esquire is listed on the
cover is the copyright owner of the translation. It's rather short -
although the book counts about 60 pages, almost half of them are
photos of Brigitte Bardot from various movies, the book is small
and typeset in a large font.

The only place in the book where Lolita or VN are mentioned (besides
the title) is this passage (context: SdeB talks about the recent
phenomenon of childishly erotic female movie stars):

----
The child-woman is triumphing not only in the films. In _A View
from the Bridge_, the Arthur Miller play which has been a hit in the
Unites States and a bigger one in England and France, the heroine has
just about reached the age of puberty. Nabokov's _Lolita_, which
deals with the relations between a forty-year-old male and a 'nymphet'
of twelve, was at the top of the bestseller list in England and America
for months.
----

The main theme of the book is: why do Frenchmen love Brigitte Bardot
less than, for example, Americans? The answer (very roughly): because
they love submissive women, "girlfriends" of the films of 40-ies, and
BB's child-like sexuality has a subtle trace of roughness and
independence to it, which puts the Frenchmen off. The book is slightly
boring in a pleasant intellectual way, and there's absolutely nothing in it
(including BB's image) even remotely related to Lolita, in my opinion.

Sincerely,
Anatoly.

--
Anatoly Vorobey,
mellon@pobox.com http://pobox.com/~mellon/
"Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly" - G.K.Chesterton