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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
it’s almost unfair to rate this, as it feels like a rough draft for lolita. even still, this novella is gripping and disturbing, just like all of nabokovs other works.
The Enchanter is a shocking, masterfully written novella that explores the same themes as Lolita but in a rawer fashion. The last scene in the book is horrifying, only nabokov could write something so beautifully depraved.
I read Lolita when I was not much past "nymphet" age myself and have not been tempted to reread it. Not only was it an intense story perfectly told (only my second book by Nabokov) but at that time, Nabokov's storytelling was able to really humanize Humbert Humbert for me and the cognitive dissonance messed with my head.
The protagonist of The Enchanter was, thankfully, less humanized. Maybe because I'm older, maybe because I am desensitized from having read Lolita, maybe because it's a shorter work and there was less space in which to explain things from the pedophile's point of view. Maybe even the largely third person narration helped to distance the reader from the protagonist.
In any case, I don't see much point reading this novella except to compare to Lolita and cogitate the writing process.
The protagonist of The Enchanter was, thankfully, less humanized. Maybe because I'm older, maybe because I am desensitized from having read Lolita, maybe because it's a shorter work and there was less space in which to explain things from the pedophile's point of view. Maybe even the largely third person narration helped to distance the reader from the protagonist.
In any case, I don't see much point reading this novella except to compare to Lolita and cogitate the writing process.
Though not a proper prelude to Lolita (as Nabokov described this as the “first little throb” of Lolita, and his son Dmitri points out that the two works have more differences than similarities) — I still feel like reading this has greatly enhanced my understanding of Lolita (which I have read I don’t even know how many times by now). One of the more explicit - in language/expression and in sexual terms - works that Nabokov produced, it definitely lifts the veil on some of the more murky (but beautiful, and appropriately enchanting) prose that we find later in Lolita. The narrator’s intentions and actions are clearer, and his characterization more expressly cartoonish. He is the villain in a horror movie that he believes to be a romance, and that allows us to laugh at his delusion and his demise (though still gasp at the horror he intends to inflict upon the young, unnamed, girl).
Stunning, of course, because it’s Nabokov. Very quick read. Dmitri’s notes are very helpful, too.
Stunning, of course, because it’s Nabokov. Very quick read. Dmitri’s notes are very helpful, too.
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes