Lolita x Six

Abstract

Abstract: Vladimir Nabokov and Philip Roth had much in common, from an intense commitment to their art to an appreciation of so-called May-December relationships. Roth's personal library includes twenty-four Nabokov titles with six copies of Lolita (1955). His underlinings and marginal notes in two editions confirm his study of the book, which he also taught, and underscore his belief that "sex is but the ancilla of art," as Humbert Humbert states. But the influence of Nabokov goes beyond the single text. Elements of Nabokov exist in various Roth works. Lolita may have also provided license for Roth's uncensored sex in Portnoy's Complaint (1969), although Roth began to question whether art alone could vindicate immoral actions. Could art actually shelter the artist? Both authors attempted to distance themselves from their characters, but the public would not allow such separation. Nevertheless, the aesthetic of accumulation, sense of satire, and use of a self-conscious first-person narrator, added to the theme of sexual desire, cement the Nabokov-Roth nexus rooted in the numerous Nabokov titles found in the Philip Roth Personal Library. Abstract: Vladimir Nabokov and Philip Roth had much in common, from an intense commitment to their art to an appreciation of so-called May-December relationships. Roth's personal library includes twenty-four Nabokov titles with six copies of Lolita (1955). His underlinings and marginal notes in two editions confirm his study of the book, which he also taught, and underscore his belief that "sex is but the ancilla of art," as Humbert Humbert states. But the influence of Nabokov goes beyond the single text. Elements of Nabokov exist in various Roth works. Lolita may have also provided license for Roth's uncensored sex in Portnoy's Complaint (1969), although Roth began to question whether art alone could vindicate immoral actions. Could art actually shelter the artist? Both authors attempted to distance themselves from their characters, but the public would not allow such separation. Nevertheless, the aesthetic of accumulation, sense of satire, and use of a self-conscious first-person narrator, added to the theme of sexual desire, cement the Nabokov-Roth nexus rooted in the numerous Nabokov titles found in the Philip Roth Personal Library.