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The Enchantress of Florence: A Novel by…
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The Enchantress of Florence: A Novel (original 2008; edition 2009)

by Salman Rushdie

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3,4261323,736 (3.62)206
A tall, yellow-haired young European traveller calling himself "Mogor dell'Amore," the Mughal of Love, arrives at the court of the real Grand Mughal, the Emperor Akbar, with a tale to tell that begins to obsess the whole imperial capital. The stranger claims to be the child of a lost Mughal princess, the youngest sister of Akbar's grandfather Babar: Qara Köz, 'Lady Black Eyes', a great beauty believed to possess powers of enchantment and sorcery, who is taken captive first by an Uzbeg warlord, then by the Shah of Persia, and finally becomes the lover of a certain Argalia, a Florentine soldier of fortune, commander of the armies of the Ottoman Sultan. When Argalia returns home with his Mughal mistress the city is mesmerised by her presence, and much trouble ensues. But is Mogor's story true? And if so, then what happened to the lost princess? And if he's a liar, must he die?--From publisher description.… (more)
Member:Acrackedportrait
Title:The Enchantress of Florence: A Novel
Authors:Salman Rushdie
Info:Random House Trade Paperbacks (2009), Edition: Reprint, Paperback, 368 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:***1/2
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The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie (2008)

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» See also 206 mentions

English (127)  Dutch (2)  German (2)  Spanish (1)  Portuguese (Portugal) (1)  French (1)  All languages (134)
Showing 1-5 of 127 (next | show all)
I liked this magical-realism novel but did not love it - somewhat interesting, somewhat baffling, unclear about the point (if there was one) of the book, and difficult to get through because of my uncertainty about whether it was worth continuing. I finally got through it because I wanted to see whether the book changed into a book I valued. ( )
  RickGeissal | Aug 16, 2023 |
Hard to know how to rate this one. The writing is wonderful: insightful, gorgeous, humorous and playful. The characters are appealing and for the first ~50 pages I was hooked. Then the next couple hundred pages (or so, felt like a ton but probably wasn't) went by and I was pretty dang bored. Just when I decided to skim a bit (read: last desperate act before abandoning) it got really good again and became a page-turner. So, um, ymmv??

Thankfully, Rushdie has quite a few titles to pick from and (can't say this enough) the writing is fantastic! I'll be perusing all his titles for stories that keep me engaged so I can experience more of his craft. ( )
  sgwordy | Dec 31, 2022 |
A tale of a traveler, the enchantress of the title moves between the Mughal capital and Florence through her wiles. Sometimes I thought of Scheherazade a bit, but this is pure Rushdie and a mesmerizing tale at that. Read at your own risk for you may not be able to put it down. ( )
  jwhenderson | Aug 14, 2022 |
I love reading Rushdie, and this book harks back to his earlier, lighter style. I had a hard time getting into it and it did not sweep me away as some of his other books did. It gave me a hint of the fabulous, but never quite took me there. ( )
  jennybeast | Apr 14, 2022 |
Wonderful. I had for a while searched for a book that would reproduce the reading experience of “Seven Gothic Tales” by Isak Dinesen, but I never thought that Salman Rushdie would be the author to do it.

So much is said about Rushdie’s magic realism. But on "The Enchantress of Florence" he goes a step farther, mixing fables and history, story lines leading into story lines, creating a fantastic and sensual universe somewhere between East and West. The writing is gorgeous, but the magic narrative is what grabbed me and would not let me go.

Rushdie is undoubtedly an academic, whose writing is full of metaphor and questionings, but in this book he handles those with a master’s approach, mixing adventure and sorcery with questionings about power and love in such a perfect dose. Not that the characters don’t duel in philosophical considerations, just the opposite, but Rushdie manages to embed these rationalizations/meditations into the narrative without making them forceful or tiring – truly an amazing feat.

On the book jacket someone defines it as “a naughty fairy tale for grow-ups” and I could not agree more.
( )
  RosanaDR | Apr 15, 2021 |
Showing 1-5 of 127 (next | show all)
“The Enchantress of Florence” is so pious — especially in its impiety — so pleased with itself and so besotted with the sound of its own voice that even the tritest fancies get a free pass.
 
Salman Rushdie’s new novel, “The Enchantress of Florence,” reads less like a novel by the author of such magical works as “Midnight’s Children” and “The Moor’s Last Sigh” than a weary, predictable parody of something by John Barth.
 
The essential compatibility of the realistic and the fantastic imagination may explain the success of Rushdie's sumptuous, impetuous mixture of history with fable. But in the end, of course, it is the hand of the master artist, past all explanation, that gives this book its glamour and power, its humour and shock, its verve, its glory. It is a wonderful tale, full of follies and enchantments.
added by mikeg2 | editThe Guardian, Ursula K Le Guin (Mar 29, 2008)
 

» Add other authors (10 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Rushdie, Salmanprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Bamji, FirdousNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Häilä, ArtoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Santen, Karina vanTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Vosmaer, MartineTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
"Her way of moving was no mortal thing/ but of angelic form: and her speech/ rang higher than a mere human voice.// A celestial spirit, a living sun/ was what I saw..." ~ Francesco Petrarca translated by A.S. Kline
"If there is a knower of tongues here, fetch him;/ There's a stranger in the city/ And he has many things to say." ~ Mirza Ghilab translated by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi
A few liberties have been taken with the historical record in the interests of the truth. (colophon on copyright/publication data page)
Dedication
To Bill Buford
First words
In the day's last light the glowing lake below the palace-city looked like a sea of molten gold.
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Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
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Wikipedia in English (1)

A tall, yellow-haired young European traveller calling himself "Mogor dell'Amore," the Mughal of Love, arrives at the court of the real Grand Mughal, the Emperor Akbar, with a tale to tell that begins to obsess the whole imperial capital. The stranger claims to be the child of a lost Mughal princess, the youngest sister of Akbar's grandfather Babar: Qara Köz, 'Lady Black Eyes', a great beauty believed to possess powers of enchantment and sorcery, who is taken captive first by an Uzbeg warlord, then by the Shah of Persia, and finally becomes the lover of a certain Argalia, a Florentine soldier of fortune, commander of the armies of the Ottoman Sultan. When Argalia returns home with his Mughal mistress the city is mesmerised by her presence, and much trouble ensues. But is Mogor's story true? And if so, then what happened to the lost princess? And if he's a liar, must he die?--From publisher description.

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Haiku summary
Started in Florence
Then to Muslim India
In the Renaissance
(pickupsticks)

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