Subject
Re: romanticism (fwd)
Date
Body
From: Galya Diment <galya@u.washington.edu>
For what it's worth, I think Professor Zimmer is absolutely right when he
suggests that the eighteenth-century French "dangerous liaisons"
novels, like those of Mme de Stael, are much more plausible as
"romantic" precursors of LOLITA than the Romantic Novel proper, Don
Quixote or even Anna K. These French novels, high on playfulness and
relatively low in moralistic content, often match Nabokov's own artistic
temperament. He probably could also like English Restoration comedy, for the
same reason, but I cannot remember whether he ever commented on Congreve
and Co.
Galya Diment
For what it's worth, I think Professor Zimmer is absolutely right when he
suggests that the eighteenth-century French "dangerous liaisons"
novels, like those of Mme de Stael, are much more plausible as
"romantic" precursors of LOLITA than the Romantic Novel proper, Don
Quixote or even Anna K. These French novels, high on playfulness and
relatively low in moralistic content, often match Nabokov's own artistic
temperament. He probably could also like English Restoration comedy, for the
same reason, but I cannot remember whether he ever commented on Congreve
and Co.
Galya Diment