The Magician. Solus Rex

This edition contains two Nabokov works written in the early 1940s before his move from Europe to the United States. “The Enchanter” is a novella in which Nabokov for the first time develops the theme of “Lolita.” The plot of this novella was described by Nabokov in the 1956 afterword to “Lolita.” “Solus Rex” is an unfinished “ghost novel” consisting of two chapters: a painter’s letter to his deceased wife and the story of the ruler of a semi-fairytale kingdom. These works were published in Russian only once and went unnoticed by Russian readers. “Solus Rex” is a novel saturated with occult symbolism, interweaving the story of the alchemist John Dee and occult intrigues, where the main character finds himself at the peak of a clash of Light and Darkness.