num_pages: 114
description: Nabokov described this novella, written in Paris in 1939 but only published twenty years later, as 'the first little throb of Lolita'. The plot is similar: a middle-aged man wedding an unattractive widow in order to indulge his paedophilic obsession with her daughter.However, The Enchanter has an utterly different atmosphere, as time, place and even names remain a mystery. Nabokov transforms his protagonist's attempts to lull his twelve-year-old step-daughter into a state of 'enchantment' into a graceful, chilling fairytale.
language: English
title: The Enchanter
titlecomplete: The Enchanter
genres: Classics, Short Stories, Russia, Novella, Novels, Russian Literature, 20th Century, Literature, Literary Fiction, Fiction
ratings_count: 4040
publisher: Vintage