The Enchanter

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