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3.44 AVERAGE
3.44 AVERAGE
Like the back of the novel says, 'the Enchanter' is "the Ur-[b:Lolita|7604|Lolita|Vladimir Nabokov|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1377756377s/7604.jpg|1268631], the precursor to Nabokov's classic novel." A short, quick novella that flirts and throbs with similar themes as 'Lolita', but also a terrible infant work that explores the themes of maddness, indulgence, obsession and fantasy that Nabokov's novels like [b:Despair|418209|Despair|Vladimir Nabokov|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1362286012s/418209.jpg|1258927] and [b:Pale Fire|7805|Pale Fire|Vladimir Nabokov|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388155863s/7805.jpg|1222661] also explore. A mad king who reigns in his lecherous and multi-level hell of his own impulses. Distilled down, reading 'the Enchanter' is like eating powdered Nabokovian Jello out of the box. The sweetness quickly disolves in your gut into clumpy images of boiled bones, connective tissues, and the intestines of small, lecherous dead animals.
[2005 review.] A Lolita-like novella Nabokov wrote about thirty years before the real Lolita, in Russian. Lots of nascent plot similarities, but Lolita is much better -- I'm not sure how much of the difference was because Nabokov had matured as a writer and how much was just because it was in translation. Also I almost think the yucky-creepy factor was much higher here, but maybe I've glossed over how disturbing Lolita was, in memory.