Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #402 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-03
• Binding: Hardcover
• 368 pages

Elle
'It's an erotic feast...also a testament to love'

The Economist
`carefully wrought and often exquisite'

Guardian Review
'it is the hand of the master artist, past all explanation, that gives this book its glamour and its power, its humour and shock, its verve, its glory. It is a wonderful tale full of follies and enchantments. East meets west with a clash of cymbals and a burst of fireworks'

Customer Reviews

Opulent feast of a read
Salman Rushdie, unfortunately still seen by many as the scandal writer of "The Satanic Verses" only, has with his new book given us readers again a magnificent novel. "The Enchantress of Florence" is a beautiful and opulent reading feast. Considering that one of the books characters is Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527), the main time of this novel is the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th century. A novel, which skilfully plays with the idea of "1001 Nights and Scheherazade", giving the story-telling role to a young european traveller, yellow haired, calling himself the "Mogor dell'Amore" and claiming to be the child of the lost Mughal princess Qara Koz. He tells his story to the feared Emperor Mughal Akbar, of course knowing that belief or disbelief will decide his fate. Salman Rushdie has written a (sometimes rather frivolous) fable, a wonderful book about love, trust, treachery, enchantment, the art of story-telling and the story of Lady Black Eyes. A tale of many voices, all perfectly united in one whole by Salman Rushdie, who has herewith delivered what I guess is maybe his best novel to date.

A novel about imagination
Imagine a king, a foreigner, a lost princess and a queen who does not really exist but has a mind of her own, and talks, makes love and has her own servants. The latest novel by Salman Rushdie, which I believe to be one of the greatest author of our time, is full of enchantment, stories, and imagination.
This is once again a complex novel by Rushdie, and I believe that I need to read it again to fully comprehend the meaning hiding between the lines. At this point I would say it is an ode to imagination. Rushdie shows that imagination helps us see beyond the borders and what is directly in front of us. It can even bring people to life, such as King Akbar's imaginary wife Jodha, and it can bring us wisdom and tolerance of other worlds. Too much imagination, however, may cause us to lose all touch with reality.
What also stands out in this novel is the issue of religion. Not so much a religion in particular, but religion in general. Rushdie seems to critique monotheism as detrimental to one's imagination, as well as polytheism as imagination run amok.

I give it a tentative 4 stars because the language was once again amazingly beautiful, but I'm not fully convinced I like this novel. It is too Arabian nights for my taste, that is to say, full of princes and kings, giants and warriors, jealous queens and princesses, enchanted pictures and omens, castles and dungeons, etc., etc. While some readers might feel that this adds value to the novel I can't help but feeling it is a bit cliché. Because even though Rushdie is an icon of magical realism, I believe his previous books have a magical quality that has evolved far beyond that of Arabian nights.
But I'm still willing to believe that if I read it again I might appreciate it better.

a must read
Years ago (more than I'd like to think about), one of my tutors recommended that I read Salman Rushdie's "Haroun and the Sea of Stories." I tried to finish the novel but have to confess that I didn't. I probably lacked the sophistication back then to appreciate the exquisite prose style and painstaking craftsmanship that went into creating that award winning novel. And truthfully speaking I rather thought that Salman Rushdie was going to be one of the many winning authours that would never make to my reading pile. But something about "The Enchantress of Florence" beckoned, and I decided to give it a go. And I'm truly glad that I did. What an exceptionally enthralling and compelling read "The Enchantress of Florence" turned out to be.

The Mughal Emperor, Akbar, is ready for a diversion away from the woes of family and ruling a vast nation, when a mysterious yellow-haired stranger arrives at his court in Fatepur Sikri, claiming to be an ambassador from England. The stranger has many tales to tell about the distant European city of Florence, and the enchantress from the East that enraptured the people of Florence with her beauty and grace, and soon everyone in Sikri is enthralled by the young storyteller's tales. But will these stories prove the undoing of the court, and will Akbar's growing affection for the storyteller cause even more strife amongst his family?

When I was a child, my mother used to subscribe to an Indian magazine for women that had recipes, articles, sewing tips and vignettes about Akbar and his wise advisor Birbal. Reading "The Enchantress of Florence" transported me back to those wonderful carefree days. Constructed somewhat like "The Arabian Nights," with the mysterious stranger playing the part of Scherazade, "The Enchantress of Florence" is a series of short stories that follows the supposed adventures of Qara Koz, a grandaunt of Akbar's, and that of her greatest love, the mercenary general, Argalia. Many of the stories are based on some historical fact, but are told with elements of the fantastical, so that the mood and atmosphere of the novel is really quite fairy-tale like and dazzling. Also adding to this magical tone is Rushdie's powerfully lyrical and vivid prose style and brilliantly rendered scenes. All in all, this was a very, very fascinating and beguiling read that enraptures, dazzles and seduces. Not a book to be missed -- and I think I may be finally grown-up enough to appreciate the authour's other novels