In the very first section of Lolita, I was struck by the phrase, "In a princedom by the sea." My mind automatically jumped to Edgar Allen Poe's 1849 poem "Annabel Lee," which reads "In a kingdom by the sea." After re-reading the poem, I also noticed Nabokov's use of seraphs on that same page: "...exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied," in regards to Poe's use of the word in his poem: "...I and my Annabel Lee; With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven Coveted her and me."
Read the next couple of pages, turns out Humbert's first love was named Annabel. How 'bout that. As I read on, he even reused the "princedom by the sea" line a couple of times, particularly when reminiscing about his Annabel (I'm only on section 12 so far, there's probably more). I never suspected this to be something done accdientally by Nabokov, so I wikipedia-ed Lolita. It states that Annabel Leigh is indeed named after Poe's "Annabel Lee," and that Nabokov almost titled the book The Kingdom by the Sea. (I'm really glad he didn't, btw)
I continued to look up things about Nabokov and and Edgar Allen Poe. Maybe Nabokov had a thing for his writing? I found an article written by Steven King titled "Poe, Nabokov, 'Annabel Lee'" here: http://www.todayinliterature.com/print-today.asp?Event_Date=10/9/1849 but I couldn't read it because I'm not a premium member :(
I found another article talking about Edgar Allen Poe's influences on both Nabokov and Alfred Hitchcock. Towards the end of the article, it talks about how Humbert reflects lifestyle habits of Poe himself. http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue03/features/hitchnab4.htm
This interests me a great deal. Hopefully, after reading and re-reading Lolita I'll be able to decipher the rest of the allusions Nabokov is making.
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