Vladimir Nabokov may have had a dirty little secret: the plot for Lolita was apparently taken from a 1916 story by the same name. The Nabokov family is denying it of course, while some experts are making the case that Nabokov could have appropriated the elements subconsciously. It all seems a bit silly to me. Half of high literature is intertextual reference; nobody seems to mind that a character called Hamlet was around before Shakespeare wrote his play. And if Nabokov did read and forget the story (which seems unlikely, given some of the other mental feats he accomplished), who cares? His Lolita transcends her plot.
Ron Rosenbaum has the most interesting take: with the greedy enthusiasm of a sophomore lit major, he recasts the whole criticism of Pale Fire in light of this new revelation. Shade and Kinbote are Nabokov and von Lichberg, the pseudonymous author of what's now being called the Ur-Lolita. It's a fun thesis...
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