The Enchanter Av Vladimir Nabokov

<p>Nabokov described this novella, written in Paris in 1939 but only published twenty years later, as ''the first little throb of Lolita''. The plot is similar: a middle-aged man wedding an unattractive widow in order to indulge his paedophilic obsession with her daughter. <br><br>However, <i>The Enchanter</i> has an utterly different atmosphere, as time, place and even names remain a mystery. Nabokov transforms his protagonist''s attempts to lull his twelve-year-old step-daughter into a state of ''enchantment'' into a graceful, chilling fairytale.</p>