The Enchanter is the Ur-Lolita, the precursor to Nabokov's classic novel. At once hilarious and chilling, it tells the story of an outwardly respectable man and his fatal obsession with certain pubescent girls, whose coltish grace and subconscious coquetry reveal, to his mind, a special bud on the verge of bloom.
"Nabokov writes prose the only way it should be written, that is, ecstatically." — John Updike
"Masterly ... brilliant." —V. S. Pritchett, The New York Review of Books
"A gem to be appreciated by any admirer of the most graceful and provocative literary craftsman." —Chicago Tribune
"One of the best books of the year ... [The Enchanter] displays the supple clarity of a master." —The Boston Globe
"Enchanting ... sleekly wrought." —Newsweek
Vladimir Nabokov studied French and Russian literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, then lived in Berlin and Paris, writing prolifically in Russian under the pseudonym Sirin. In 1940, he left France for America, where he wrote some of his greatest works—Bend Sinister (1947), Lolita (1955), Pnin (1957), and Pale Fire (1962)—and translated his earlier Russian novels into English. He taught at Wellesley, Harvard, and Cornell. He died in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1977.
View titles by Vladimir Nabokov
About
The Enchanter is the Ur-Lolita, the precursor to Nabokov's classic novel. At once hilarious and chilling, it tells the story of an outwardly respectable man and his fatal obsession with certain pubescent girls, whose coltish grace and subconscious coquetry reveal, to his mind, a special bud on the verge of bloom.
Praise
"Nabokov writes prose the only way it should be written, that is, ecstatically." — John Updike
"Masterly ... brilliant." —V. S. Pritchett, The New York Review of Books
"A gem to be appreciated by any admirer of the most graceful and provocative literary craftsman." —Chicago Tribune
"One of the best books of the year ... [The Enchanter] displays the supple clarity of a master." —The Boston Globe
"Enchanting ... sleekly wrought." —Newsweek
Author
Vladimir Nabokov studied French and Russian literature at Trinity College, Cambridge, then lived in Berlin and Paris, writing prolifically in Russian under the pseudonym Sirin. In 1940, he left France for America, where he wrote some of his greatest works—Bend Sinister (1947), Lolita (1955), Pnin (1957), and Pale Fire (1962)—and translated his earlier Russian novels into English. He taught at Wellesley, Harvard, and Cornell. He died in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1977.
View titles by Vladimir Nabokov
