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VN and Houssaye's Lolita
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Yes, Matt may be right! There is no evidence that Nabokov actually read
Houssaye's "Lolita", judging from Brian's comments, only that someone had
drawn his attention to it. Did Nabokov deliberately introduce the name
of "Armande" in reference to "Armand" to point out that he knew of the novel?
Who knows?
I am surprised that there have been so many novels written in French with the
name Lolita in the title. It seems to me that the name has never been quite as
popular in other literatures, except in the Spanish one perhaps. Am I right?
Maurice Couturier
> Does it not seem likely that someone who had read both Lolitas told VN about
> Houssaye's novel? If so, that person may even have provided VN with a
> detailed synopsis. I am reminded of a comment made by one of my colleagues
> regarding Shakespeare's surprising breadth of knowledge. He said that while
> we can to some degree reconstruct what books Shakespeare might have been able
> to read, we can't account for late night conversations in the tavern with his
> friends, and all of the other unpublished ways that knowledge is
> transmitted.
>
> Matt Roth
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Houssaye's "Lolita", judging from Brian's comments, only that someone had
drawn his attention to it. Did Nabokov deliberately introduce the name
of "Armande" in reference to "Armand" to point out that he knew of the novel?
Who knows?
I am surprised that there have been so many novels written in French with the
name Lolita in the title. It seems to me that the name has never been quite as
popular in other literatures, except in the Spanish one perhaps. Am I right?
Maurice Couturier
> Does it not seem likely that someone who had read both Lolitas told VN about
> Houssaye's novel? If so, that person may even have provided VN with a
> detailed synopsis. I am reminded of a comment made by one of my colleagues
> regarding Shakespeare's surprising breadth of knowledge. He said that while
> we can to some degree reconstruct what books Shakespeare might have been able
> to read, we can't account for late night conversations in the tavern with his
> friends, and all of the other unpublished ways that knowledge is
> transmitted.
>
> Matt Roth
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm