As Dimitri Nabokov points out in his essay following The Enchanter one of the most enjoyable aspects of the novella is it's sense of suspense. This feeling is derived from an expectation the reader has that is inherently moral.
In the first pages of the novella the reader is told in both poetic but certain terms that our Anti-Hero is attracted to prepubescent girls, and when this information is given it sets up a sense of wrongness, that even the narrator cannot ignore. The reader enters the novel with a sense that this attraction will likely lead to his demise. In the pages prior to the marriage one observes his blatantly unromantic courtship with the girls mother, which juxtaposes nicely to the overly romanticized descriptions he gives of the young girl. After the wedding the story has a 1 or 2 page lull that makes the reader wish for the protagonist's wife's death, as much as he does. When she actually does die though, it dawns on the reader, perhaps really for the first time, what is about to transpire: the protagonist is going to gain custody of a 12 year old girl, who he is sexually attracted to and presumably rape her. Despite knowing this has been his plan all along, it seems less disturbing when it does not feel so imminent. However as plot comes closer to the act,which disturbs the reader so, it also begins to feel less likely it will ever happen. The narrator who is aware of the immorality of what he so longs to do, becomes increasingly nervous despite the fact he is perfectly safe traveling with his adopted daughter. The reader experiences that nervousness as well though for different reason, dread. The tension in the hotel room is high, and the reader just waits not knowing if they are actually going to read the description of a rape of if a sudden change of fate will save a little girl whom we desperately fear for, though we know next to nothing about.
This fear is derived from this seemingly inherent sense of morality that Nabokov is playing with; despite the disgust one feels for the narrator there is a certain connection with him that the reader feels. I would suggest that the average reader will even find themselves more connected to the predator then to the prey. This is one of the aspects that Nabokov will be carry over into Lolita, even making Humbert Humbert more relatable than The Enchanter's the unnamed narrator.
In the first pages of the novella the reader is told in both poetic but certain terms that our Anti-Hero is attracted to prepubescent girls, and when this information is given it sets up a sense of wrongness, that even the narrator cannot ignore. The reader enters the novel with a sense that this attraction will likely lead to his demise. In the pages prior to the marriage one observes his blatantly unromantic courtship with the girls mother, which juxtaposes nicely to the overly romanticized descriptions he gives of the young girl. After the wedding the story has a 1 or 2 page lull that makes the reader wish for the protagonist's wife's death, as much as he does. When she actually does die though, it dawns on the reader, perhaps really for the first time, what is about to transpire: the protagonist is going to gain custody of a 12 year old girl, who he is sexually attracted to and presumably rape her. Despite knowing this has been his plan all along, it seems less disturbing when it does not feel so imminent. However as plot comes closer to the act,which disturbs the reader so, it also begins to feel less likely it will ever happen. The narrator who is aware of the immorality of what he so longs to do, becomes increasingly nervous despite the fact he is perfectly safe traveling with his adopted daughter. The reader experiences that nervousness as well though for different reason, dread. The tension in the hotel room is high, and the reader just waits not knowing if they are actually going to read the description of a rape of if a sudden change of fate will save a little girl whom we desperately fear for, though we know next to nothing about.
This fear is derived from this seemingly inherent sense of morality that Nabokov is playing with; despite the disgust one feels for the narrator there is a certain connection with him that the reader feels. I would suggest that the average reader will even find themselves more connected to the predator then to the prey. This is one of the aspects that Nabokov will be carry over into Lolita, even making Humbert Humbert more relatable than The Enchanter's the unnamed narrator.
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