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Abstract. The author considers the novels "Lolita" (1955) by V. V. Nabokov and "The Collector" (1962) by J. Fowles, for the first time raises the question of the typological similarity between these novels, created on the model of "maniac – victim", reveals the artistic specificity of the works by the comparative analysis, comes to the conclusion that the motivations of characters’ acts, the motivation power of works plot and eventually the novels conceptions have fundamental differences, and tells that in general the novels of Nabokov and Fowles are not by chance chronologically close to each other, since they reveal the crisis of humanism in modern society, obsessed with hunger for consumption and getting immediate pleasure.

Key words and phrases: архетип героя-маньяка, кризис гуманизма, общество потребления, типология текстов, archetype of character-maniac, crisis of humanism, consumer society, typology of texts