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New to Penguin Modern Classics, a madman's erotic obsession is twisted into fairytale in Nabokov's precursor to Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), born in St Petersburg, exiled in Cambridge, Berlin, and Paris, became the greatest Russian writer of the first half of the twentieth century. Fleeing to the US with his family in 1940, he then became the greatest writer in English of the second half of the century, and even 'God's own novelist' (William Deresiewicz). He lived in Europe from 1959 onwards, and died in Montreux, Switzerland. All his major works - novels, stories, an autobiography, poems, plays, lectures, essays and reviews - are published in Penguin Modern Classics.
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." -- Boston Globe
"Enchanting ... sleekly wrought." -- Newsweek
The Enchanter is a real findthe ``pre- Lolita novella'' Nabokov wrote in Paris in 1939 and subsequently lost. Rediscovered two decades later, it has only now been translated by the author's son. Just as in the later masterpiece, a pedophile marries a widow to be near her daughter; when the mother dies, the way is clear. Yet The Enchanter stands on its own as a bright, brief (some would say heartless) excursion into the mind of a madman, a marvel of potent imagery and taut storytelling. More's the pity then that Dmitri Nabokov has used the occasion to write an off-putting afterword aimed as much at settling literary scores as elucidating the text. Otherwise, highly recommended. Grove Koger, Boise P.L., Id.
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." -- Boston Globe
"Enchanting ... sleekly wrought." -- Newsweek
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