VN had just about forgotten about The Enchanter and, in fact, was not sure we had saved a copy from wartime Europe. He recalled it as a work of 30 pages or so whose artistic inspiration had been largely absorbed by Lolita. Years later, when a single copy (actually 55 typewritten pages) of Volshebnik turned up, he had a change of heart: “It is a beautiful piece of Russian prose,” he wrote, “precise and lucid and with a little care could be done into English by the Nabokovs.” But other projects interfered, and it was not done until 1986, without Father, but with valuable comments from Mother, that I completed the English version (Pan Picador, Putnam, then Vintage). Subsequently I did the Italian translation (Mondadori, republished by Adelphi) and assisted the late Gilles Barbedette with the French version (Rivages). I’m sure Prof. Henry-Thommes will find much valuable information in the Sweeney and Barabtarlo essays. He may also find useful my father’s notes and my afterword, as well as some more recent research in Russia and elsewhere.

From: Vladimir Nabokov Forum [mailto:NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU]On
Behalf Of D. Barton Johnson
Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2003 8:40 PM
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Subject: Fw: Fw: Teaching "The Enchanter"

----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan Elizabeth Sweeney" ssweeney@holycross.edu

I have an essay entitled "THE ENCHANTER and the Beauties of Sleeping" in
the new volume on NABOKOV AT CORNELL, ed. Gavriel Shapiro (Ithaca: Cornell
UP, 2003), which I think was just published within the last week or so.

Susan Elizabeth Sweeney
Associate Professor of English
Holy Cross College

> >>> chtodel@cox.net 01/19/03 15:54 PM >>>
> EDNOTE. By far th best discussion of The Enchantress" that I have seen is
> Gennady Barabtarlo's essay "Those Who Favor Fire (On The Enchanter) in the
> final issue of RUSSIAN LITERATURE TRIQUARTERLY, #24 (1991), pp. 89-112. The
> issue also contained the first Russian printing of the tale.
> --------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Zilfira Henry-Thommes" <semfih@rz-online.de>
> >
> > Dear list-members,
> >
> > in my class "Introduction to English Philology" at the Mainz State
> > University I decided to teach "The Enchanter" as the prose piece. I have
> > surfed through the internet and numerous online-bibliographies including
> > the Zembla-page, of course, but could not find much material on this
> > story. Has anybody ever taught it? If so, I would be very grateful, if
> > this person would be willing to share some ideas with me on how to go
> > about teaching it.
> >
> > Thanks in advance for anything that might come up on the list
> >
> > Christoph Henry-Thommes, Mainz State University, Germany
> >
> >
>
>