The Enchanter Response #1

Nabokov's short story, a precursor to Lolita, The Enchanter, both made me want to keep reading and see what happens next, but it also made me cringe. The fact that a story can too this is saying a lot about it. The Enchanter keeps the audience wanting to keep reading but also making them feel slightly dirty for reading it at the same time. 

Some of the things that made me so interested in the novella were the fact that no one has a name in the story until page 57 when he refers to her as "his little Cordelia", if this is even her real name. The story simply uses pronouns the entire time, or uses titles such as "the girl" or "the knitter". This gives the novella a sense of mystery. 

The Enchanter has the same essence, and almost storyline, as Lolita and it is interesting to see a different outcome from the story that everyone knows. Much like in Lolita this story focuses on a hebephile that is trying to control their urges. But ends up doing anything to be near the object of their desire. 

In the novella, though, the man known simply as the enchanter, has a lot of guilt built up because he knows what he is doing is wrong. When he first meets her in the park he has an use to turn around and see her once more, "Even though he knew from experience that one more look would simply exacerbate his hopeless longing, he completed his turn into the iridescent shade, his eyes furtively seeking the violet speck among the other colors"(pg.10). Also he had only planned to turn around and see her once more, his plan obviously didn't work. 

Nabokov's novella is beautifully written and contains beautiful figurative language that helps to make the story so much more realistic and enticing.