Elementary Secondary Higher Ed Common Reads

Higher Education


Catalogs
News
Desk/Exam
(0)
Wish List (0)
Wish List
Download high-resolution image

The Enchanter

Part of Vintage International

Author Vladimir Nabokov
Ebook
Knopf | Vintage
On sale Feb 16, 2011 | 144 Pages | 9780307787309
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies
See Additional Formats
The precursor to Nabokov's classic novel, Lolita. •  A middle-aged man weds an unattractive widow in order to indulge his obsession with her daughter.  • "A gem to be appreciated by any admirer of the most graceful and provocative literary craftsman." —Chicago Tribune

The unnamed protagonist of the story is, outwardly, a respectable and comfortable man; inside, he churns at the pubescent femininity of certain girls. Rare girls – one in a thousand – whose coltish grace and subconscious flirtatiousness betray, to his obsessed mind, a very special bud on the moist verge of its bloom.
 
Sitting on a park bench one day, he is tantalized by the fleeting form of just such a girl roller-skating on a gravel path. His desire to be near this beauty burns in him and drives him to begin a courtship of the child’s pitiful mother – a course that can end only in the disintegration of his life.
 
Over the years, the idea of The Enchanter grew; it changed; it developed “claws and wings.” By 1953 it was ready to furnish the basic theme of Lolita.

"The Enchanter is entertaining independent of its Lolita connection. It is arch, delicious and beautifully written." —Publishers Weekly
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 precursor to Nabokov's classic novel, Lolita. •  A middle-aged man weds an unattractive widow in order to indulge his obsession with her daughter.  • "A gem to be appreciated by any admirer of the most graceful and provocative literary craftsman." —Chicago Tribune

The unnamed protagonist of the story is, outwardly, a respectable and comfortable man; inside, he churns at the pubescent femininity of certain girls. Rare girls – one in a thousand – whose coltish grace and subconscious flirtatiousness betray, to his obsessed mind, a very special bud on the moist verge of its bloom.
 
Sitting on a park bench one day, he is tantalized by the fleeting form of just such a girl roller-skating on a gravel path. His desire to be near this beauty burns in him and drives him to begin a courtship of the child’s pitiful mother – a course that can end only in the disintegration of his life.
 
Over the years, the idea of The Enchanter grew; it changed; it developed “claws and wings.” By 1953 it was ready to furnish the basic theme of Lolita.

"The Enchanter is entertaining independent of its Lolita connection. It is arch, delicious and beautifully written." —Publishers Weekly

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

Additional formats

Other books in this series

Other Books by this Author

Related Articles

Subscribe

About Higher Education

Penguin Random House Education

Penguin Random House

About Higher Education

Penguin Random House Education

Penguin Random House

Back to Top
0
    • 0
    Higher Education
    Wish List (0)