A peek into a corner of my Nabokov assemblage might not pass
through our Nab-L editorial standards. However taking a picture of what I was
looking at became the only way to describe a curious vision. The
blurred title, in one of the Brazilian editions of
"Lolita" became "Lilith"...
I had never before linked the two names and I'm unsure if this suggestion (
Lolita as "the first woman") can hold. Added to what Nabokov
has described in SO about his pleasure with the lolling softness of
the "L," when the name of his nymphet is pronounced, Lilith's
name, on the contrary, by the simplest substitution of "o-ee-a" for the "i"
and a suspension, generates tension. Inspite of this constraint, perhaps
Nabokov's subconscious could have registered the consonants while
deciding about the title of his dolorous novel...