I am currently writing an article on Nabokov’s use of biblical materials; it has been accepted for inclusion the forthcoming volume, From Around the Globe: Secular Authors and Biblical Perspectives (anticipated publication, 2004). A brief abstract of this article is included below.
Immemorial Exile and the Refuge of Art: Vladimir Nabokov’s Literary Recourse to Eden (Abstract)

It is unlikely that many readers would immediately associate the author of Lolita and Pale Fire with biblical scripture or any of its particular narratives. This, no doubt, is due in large part to Vladimir Nabokov’s rather vocal disregard for institutional religion. Nevertheless, this avowedly secular author found significant recourse time and again to images and symbols borrowed directly from the biblical garden narrative in Genesis. Indeed, Nabokov’s innumerable Edenic allusions often function quite importantly, albeit subtly, in their respective narratives.

Even in his earliest works–from the first years of his poignant, lifelong exile from Soviet Russia–Nabokov relied upon Eden as a central metaphor, representing not only the lost paradise of primordial beginning, but also personal nostalgia for the memorable past. Futhermore, the same timeless garden, especially as mediated through the works of Milton and Marvell, also came to symbolize for Nabokov something like creative freshness or artistic originality itself. This fundamental idea–one that, for Nabokov, married the literary imagination to the very notion of paradise–was yet another facet of the author’s deep engagement with the Edenic account.

My essay will examine some of the most prominent occurrences of the Edenic theme in Nabokov’s fiction, with close attention being devoted not only to his most famous text, Lolita, but also to his first novel, Mary, to his longest novel, Ada, and to his undervalued penultimate novel, Transparent Things. It will be argued that Nabokov’s recurring themes of tragic love, exile, ethical failure, and loss evolved, in part, under the considerable influence of the Edenic narrative.