Good morning all,
Ruby especially included
One stark difference between the
Enchanter and
Lolita that comes back to mind, again, is the difference between the two girls. And it's not only the difference in their reactions to the predator's advances. The bigger difference IMO is in how clearly they are seen.
The daughter in The Enchanter is clearly a normal 12-year old girl who skates, plays hop-scotch, bounces a bit as she sits on the bench having lunch, has a lively interest in the accident that occurs outside her window, and wants to sit up front to see what there is to be seen as they drive along. She also has two differences from Lolita that we much prefer to see in a child. Maybe only subliminally, but to me anyway she seems to know how to 'stay close' to her governess, but also definitely how to scream out loud when the situation demands it. Nabokov writes so many strange characters, that the daughter in
Enchanter stands as proof that he can write 'normal' people as well and that his powers of observation are as acute there as they are for seeing the odder parts of life.
Lolita is obviously different, but especially in the two ways that drive the novel. She is not a girl to stay close to her parent -- anything but! And, as far as we can tell, even from Humbert's biased perspective, she never screamed -- although later she did run. In all the other ways, however, Nabokov presents her as a normal teenager too, or more likely, presents her as a parody of a normal teenager -- but normal, nevertheless.
But overarching even the major differences between the girls is the fact that one is clear cut and the other is so darn difficult to get a handle on. The daughter has the innocence of childhood, but how to describe Lolita? If she had simply been a wayward girl, willing and eager to have sex with a grown man and to run away with him across the countryside,
Lolita would not be the story it is, and probably never would have made it past the censor. Instead, it seems to me that it is almost impossible to see Lolita clearly. It is that feature about her that is the greatest difference from the daughter, and the feature that makes
Lolita the great novel it is. It is that elusive quality about her that has kept Lolita alive for fifty years, ever since she first stepped out of the pages and said 'hello' to an astonished public.
More about her over in the other thread,
Where she is still not clear,
Peder