The Enchanter was a very interesting read. This is the more raw and uninhibited precursor book to Lolita. Lolita had the same controversial topic, but a slower plot escalation and richer character personality descriptions. The expansion to both of these concepts in Lolita created more depth beyond the choices that was made by the characters and the events that took place. Because of this difference, I was pleasantly surprised and impressed to find that Nabokov's belief on a good writer not getting too carried away with his stories, and also not trying to make the character relatable, held true even on a book as grating and shocking as this one. This truly was a fearless book to write, it seemed to focus much on the groundwork for Humbert's impulsive and not very dignified side, which was what made Lolita be described as pornographic.
Furthermore, in him writing this as a sort of groundwork for the ideas in Lolita, it shows how his skills as a writer in combination with his beliefs on writing make his work so special. This groundwork really shows how Humbert Humbert's tenderness for Lolita in the following book, (which was more emphasized and noted than the tenderness that this character has for his desired preteen girl), had nothing to do with the writer attempting to make a difficult subject more palatable for the reader, but it was purely an expansion, an enriching on a character that was multifaceted. To be more clear, this book as groundwork proves that none of Nabokov's writing is to concretely get an idea across through extra words or phrasing, nothing is there for the purpose of delivery to the reader. The Enchanter was a base in ideas and characters, Lolita added depth and richness, not purposeful palatability.
The tortured protagonist in The Enchanter seemed to be the "id" of Humbert in Lolita, (I smirk as I chose this concept because I know how much Nabokov would hate this terminology). Much of the writing was mainly based on his streams of perverse consciousness and frustration with the difficulties that arose in his situation in his desperate journey to possess the little girl of his dreams. I saw a lot of the writing in The Enchanter as a scrambling of desire attempting to be put into a plan of action. His future with the girl was not carefully though out out as Humbert's Lolita's was, and he definitely did not think much of her well being. When imagining his life with her following her essential abduction, he thought only of ways to keep her ignorant and still a player in the game that was his fantasy.
...the edenic discoveries that awaited her, the way the amusing traits peculiar to bodies of different sex, seen at close range, would appear extraordinary yet natural and homey to her....she would be entertained only with storybook images (the pet giant, the fairy-tale forest, the sack with its treasure)....he was convinced that, as long as novelty still prevailed and she did not look around her, it would be easy..."p.54
This character imagines a life with her that only highlights the things that he finds attractive about engaging with a young girl. That is the protagonist playing the role of introducing her to all things sexual as she is still innocent, and keeping her this way and childlike as he doesn't expose her to much more than fictional characters in children's story books. He couldn't bare to think of her possibly taking things into her own hands and getting curious or rebellious, as he seemed too enveloped with desire to logically weigh out the possibilities. Humbert also saw that she was to be kept fairly isolated, so as he wouldn't get caught or she wouldn't be "stolen" from him, and he was delusional as well as enchanted by Lolita, but he never questioned that she would try to rebel. He had multiple plans for every course of action that he took, he never questioned that Lolita may want to stray. He tried to enrich her life with education and material things in hopes she would be happy with an isolated life with him. He didn't seem as blind with desire as love for Lolita, he hoped that she would not ruin him but he thought that she might. This shows an idea of what sort of groundwork The Enchanter was and how it helped the developing of Lolita.
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