About this title: "The Enchantress of Florence" is the story of a woman attempting to command her own destiny in a man's world. Vivid, gripping, and profoundly moving, this dazzling book is by one of the world's most important living writers.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780099421924ISBN:0099421925
Description: Good. Our aim is to create value for our customers through the provision of low cost, affordable products and an overall satisfying buying experience. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780224082433ISBN:0224082434
Description: Good. Our aim is to create value for our customers through the provision of low cost, affordable products and an overall satisfying buying experience. read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. 0375504338 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 0375504338 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 08/01/2009
ISBN-13:9780099421924ISBN:0099421925
Description: Used-Good. Book in good or better condition. Dispatched same day from warehouse. Please email with any questions for quick response. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: VINTAGE Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780099421924ISBN:0099421925
Description: BRAND NEW PAPERBACK. 464 pages. A young european traveler calling himself 'mogor dell 'amora', the mughal of love arrives at the court of emperor akbar. the stranger claims to be the child of a lost mughal princess, the youngest sister of akbar's grandfather babar, qara koz, a great beauty believed to possess powers of enchantment and sorcery. (Paperback) read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Date Published: 2009-01-06
ISBN-13:9780679640516ISBN:0679640517
Description: Very Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in great condition. Cover shows minor signs of wear, corners bent. Pages appear intact with no markings. Delivery confirmation on all domestic orders. Fast Shipping. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Date Published: 03/04/2008
ISBN-13:9780224082433ISBN:0224082434
Description: Used-Good. Book in good or better condition. Dispatched same day from warehouse. Please email with any questions for quick response. read more
"This story has all the ingredients that should make it wonderful : Akbar, one of the most intriguing of Mughal emperors and his mysterious Fatehpur Sikri, Renaissance Florence in all its colorful glory under the Medicis, Machiavelli, Jannisarries, grim Ottoman sultans, epic battles, and even a murder or two. But somehow all these elements fail to gel into a cohesive story. The exotic locales and historical figures are ably rendered in lush, sometimes breathless prose, but they lack character that make us care for them. They are little more than richly caparisoned puppets that mechanically move through the narrative, symbolic articulators of the author's ideas, but of little substance themselves. Which is a pity, since the themes explored --- the power of travel and the imagination, truth and deception, East and West, religious tolerance --- are inherently compelling.
The other thing that strikes me is the treatment of the female characters; they are either whores, concubines or wives, but virtually all of them are defined in terms of their sexual desirability to the men. Even Qara Koz, the titular Enchantress who is described as the most powerful woman in the story, derives her power and security solely from the powerful men that she has affairs with (oh, she is also a secretly a lesbian, but that hardly makes her a feminist paragon, Mr. Rushdie). That and the rather tedious smut and jarring profanities coexist uneasily with the lyrical writing and attempts at magical realism. Finishing this book is like waking up from a dream, which though wonderful in parts, leaves an odd, and slightly distasteful aftertaste."
"How does one balance high expectations with an unbiased review? Rushdie's latest book is exemplary with superlative imagery and an awesome command of language and the (expected) inside jokes. It's a well researched (going by the bibliography) text that looks at the intersections of history between Mughal, Ottoman, Florentine and North American geographic areas during the Renaissance. it's an important juncture in history and Rushdie is adept at juggling numerous themes. However something seems to be missing from Rushdie's earlier work from the 1980's. The tricks and flourishes seem like we've seen them before and the text ends up as historical fiction...which is not bad; just far fetched (perhaps).
It's a problematic book for me because it raises so many uncertain responses. But maybe that's what good books are supposed to do?"
"Salman Rushdie is in top form in this historical novel set in Mughal India and in Renaissance Florence. A mysterious Italian shows up at the court of the Mughal Emperor claiming to be his relation. How could this be? He has yellow hair and pale skin. Slowly the story unfolds. Rushdie creates a dreamlike atmosphere in which magic can and occasional does happen but more often humans make their own choices and accept their own fates. It's a meditation on the nature of love, of imagination, of loyalty and friendship and the forces that move history. Among the characters we meet at Machiavelli, the Medici, Botticelli and a mysterious princess -- she of the title -- and her "mirror," a servant almost as beautiful who shares her life, her lovers and her fate. Rushdie knows his history but he doesn't always let it get in the way of a good story. This book was constantly entertaining and thought-provoking. It did everything good literature should do -- tell a good yarn, introduce memorable characters, paint a convincing background and leave the reader knowing more at the end than at the beginning."
"What a wonderful book. A vast series of Arabian Nights tales, all linked, but with tantalizingly fluid chronology and meaning, with some rock-hard realistic sections in the Florence of the Medicis, although now that I think of it, those had plenty of enchantment too. The book is divided into a number of chapters, each titled on a separate initial page by its first few words. Some of them: "In the day's last light the glowing lake" "At dawn the haunting sandstone palaces" "And here again with bright silks flying" "Everything he loved was on his doorstep" "By the Caspian Sea the old potato witches". How can anybody not keep reading with titles like these? The reason I only gave the book four stars was that I thought the narrative sagged in the middle--ambiguity became so overwhelming (everything is true, nothing is true, what is truth but an artful lie?) that I couldn't find a single place firm enough to put a foot. I floundered and began to suspect that the whole thing would end in nothing but metafictional ironic playfulness. But it didn't. A severe problem in chronology, which Rushdie played with throughout, eventually became resolved in the last pages, and most of my questions were answered with a very welcome sense of finality. There is a wonderfully enigmatic character self-named "the Mughal of Love," and Rushdie wrings every possible meaning out of that phrase, pretty much as A.S.Byatt did with the word "Possession" in that book. This is my first attempt at Rushdie. His masterpiece is apparently Midnight's Children. I'm very much looking forward to that one."
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