The Enchanter (2011) is named after the unpublished 1939
novella by Russian author, Vladimir Nabokov, the precursor to his well-known
novel Lolita (1955) – it was rediscovered twenty years later, translated by his
son, Dimitri, and published in 1985 and 1991. The title is also a reference to
Nabokov’s view that “Writers may be Teachers, Storytellers, or Enchanters.” The
“real writer, the Enchanter” he said was a “fellow who sends planets spinning.”
Zanganeh’s book is an exploration of Nabokov’s
perceptions of happiness, seen through “a handful” of his novels and works,
such as The Enchanter (1939), The Gift (1938), The Real Life of Sebastian
Knight (1941), Lolita (1955), Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (1967) and his
autobiography Speak, Memory (1951). The author also includes a transcript of
her interview with Nabokov, conducted when he was on holiday at Lake Como in
1968.
Zanganeh describes Nabokov (1899-1977) as the “great
writer of happiness.” Her inspiration to write the book was from the protagonist
in The Gift who dreamed of writing A Practical Handbook: How to Be Happy.
But this is not a practical handbook. The fifteen
chapters explore “Alice-like variations” of an aspect of happiness in Nabokov’s
life, referring to Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel Alice in Wonderland. This is also
not a chronological journey through Nabokov’s life – it starts about three
months before his death in Switzerland, then returns to 1903 when he was four
years old near St. Petersburg in Russia.
Although it is not a biography, Zanganeh discusses Nabokov’s
life in Vyra, his girlfriends, his departure from Russia in 1917, and the
meeting of Vera Evseevna Slonim whom he met on May 8, 1923 on a bridge in
Berlin. He married her in 1925. The author also writes of their son Dimitri, born
in 1934 (who died after this book’s publication in 2012), and their lives in
various countries, including America.
Happiness is referenced throughout the book. For
example, Nabokov’s first unpublished novel was tentatively called Schastie,
Happiness in 1921, and in the same year, when he was in Germany, he wrote in a
letter to his mother, “I am infinitely happy, and so agitated and sad today.”
On the morning in 1922 he wrote HAPPINESS on the fog of a train carriage window
his father was assassinated later that day.
And of course, there is extensive reference to
butterfly hunting, the pursuit that Nabokov called “his greatest happiness.”
“The highest enjoyment of timelessness … is when I stand among rare butterflies
… this is ecstasy, and behind this ecstasy is something else, which is hard to
explain. It is like a momentary vacuum into which rushes all that I love.”
There are distractions too – such as nine pages on
the author’s most loved Nabokov words: words that “dazzle and delight” –
including concolorous, fritillary, and gloaming taken from his autobiography Speak,
Memory; and heavenlogged taken from his book Lolita. Hence, this is not so much
about Nabokov’s happiness, but of the author’s own.
While Zanganeh’s book has delightful and interesting
chapters, it is neither a biography, nor a novel; it is neither a practical
handbook on happiness, nor about happiness; and it is neither about Nabokov’s
happy stories, nor a happy life. It is, as the author states in the beginning,
“Alice-like variations” of aspects of happiness in Nabokov’s life. And like
Alice, it is similar to a young girl falling down a rabbit hole into a world of
fantasy and wonder populated by adventures and curious happenings.
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