History of the manuscript
Nabokov showed it to just a few people, and then lost the manuscript in the process of coming to America and believed that he had destroyed it. However, he recovered it later in Ithaca in 1959, at a time he had already published ''Lolita''. He reread ''The Enchanter'', and termed it “precise and lucid”, but left it alone suggesting that eventually "the Nabokovs" could translate it. Dmitri Nabokov judged it to be an ''important and mature'' work of his father and translated and published it posthumously. The published work also contains two author’s notes (comments by Vladimir about ''The Enchanter''), and a postscript essay by Dmitri titled ''On a Book Entitled the Enchanter''.Plot introduction
The story is essentially timeless and placeless. The unnamed protagonist is a middle-aged man who lusts after a certain type of adolescent girl. Infatuated with a specific girl he meets in a park, he marries her mother in order to gain access to her. The mother, already sick, soon passes away, and the daughter is left in his care. He takes her away with the intent of entrapping her in an endless journey, stopping along the French Riviera on the first night of their trip. While she is asleep, he makes his move, only for her to wake up terrified and screaming. Shocked at his own monstrosity, he runs out on the street and jumps in front of a fast truck. The protagonist is conflicted throughout the story and tries to rationalize his behavior whilst simultaneously being disgusted by it. “How can I come to terms with myself?” is the opening sentence. He makes his moves like a chess player. But once he seems to have reached his goal, he is horrified at the girl's reaction, and the only way to reconcile his monstrosity is to destroy himself.Link to ''Lolita''
Nabokov himself called ''The Enchanter'' his "pre-''Lolita''". In common is the theme of hebephilia and the basic strategy - to gain access to the girl, the male marries the mother. However, ''Lolita'' diverges significantly from its predecessor. Its main characters are named. Charlotte and Dolores have distinct character developments and views, rather than serving as passive pawns in the hebephile’s strategy. Dolores is a person in her own right. The resolution differs considerably: Humbert Humbert is upstaged by a rival and murders him; whereas the protagonist of ''The Enchanter'' commits suicide. There is no external rival in ''The Enchanter''. ''Lolita'' retains echoes of ''The Enchanter'', such as a death in the street (the mother in this case), and a hotel named the “Enchanted Hunters”. ''Lolita'' originated in English. Nabokov referred to ''Lolita'' as his love affair with the English language. This comment is ironic in itself, because the conclusion of ''Lolita'' is an argument by the imprisoned hebephile and murderer that his corrupt history is a love affair. The language of ''Lolita'' achieves a level ofLink to ''The Gift''
In Chapter Two of '' The Gift'', Nabokov lets Shchyogolev outline the thematic premise of ''The Enchanter'', namely the stratagem of an hebephile to marry a mother in order to gain access to the daughter. ''The Gift'' was written between 1933 and 1938, before ''The Enchanter''.Essay by Dmitri Nabokov
Echoing Nabokov's ''On a Book Entitled Lolita'', his son added hisFootnotes
External links