Nabokov Claims “Nymphet” As His Own

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29239, 24 June 1960, Page 13

Nabokov Claims “Nymphet” As His Own

’Rec. 8 p.m.) t LONDON, June 23 Vladimir Nabokov, the Russian“°m, American author of the best-selling novel, “Lolita” has defended in a Paris Court his ex- | elusive right to a word which he 1 claims to have rediscovered or reinvented. The word is ‘nymphet.” | Nabokov’s lawyer opened proceedings in a suit against a French motion picture company Jow producing a film called “Les Nymphettes.” He contested the company’s right to use that word 38 the title to a film which was

Presumably about “nymphets ” t Nabokov claimed that, the word '‘nymphet,” while it was mentioned in some dictionaries as Cleaning “a little nymph,” had acquired an entirely different meaning since he gave it a new

sense which was not internationally known. Nabokov wrote in “Lolita” that a “nymphet” had certain mysterious characteristics—a feygrace, an elusive, shifty, soulshattering. insidious charm “which placed her apart from her coevals.”

The word “nymphet,” in his opinion was, therefore, forever tied directly to “Lolita” and belonged to him, just as the novel did.

The lawyer further argued that his client had sold the rights of “Lolita” to an American film company and the use of the word ’nymphet” by the French company was an unfair business oractice. The French film company argued that the word was part of the public domain and so was its French equivalent “nymphette.” The Court reserved judgment.