The Enchantress Of Florence

The Enchantress of Florence is a story about stories. From the first moments, Mogor heads toward Sikri with the goal of telling his story to an audience of precisely one person. However, the totalizing nature of this narrative soon splinters; the story of Mogor becomes the story of the three friends in Florence, which then becomes the story of Argalia’s experiences in the Ottoman Empire. Each time, the structure of the novel embeds a story within a story until a point where fiction and reality blend together for the characters. Added to this, the use of historical figures reflects this blend back toward the audience. Real people like Niccolo Machiavelli and Emperor Akbar encounter fictional characters such as Qara Koz and Mogor. The fictional exists within the historical, blending together until neither the audience nor the characters themselves can be certain what is real and what is fiction. In the world of the novel, the power of stories is such that everything is a story and everyone is a character.

The delicate nature of reality is a consequence of the power of stories. In a world where everything is a story, reality is not beholden to truth. As Mogor tries to tell his story to the emperor, the ephemeral nature of truth becomes secondary to the importance of the story. The story of Qara Koz fascinates Akbar. He is compelled by the idea that the strange man in front of him may actually be his uncle. As a result, Akbar is willing to overlook the likelihood that Mogor killed a man. The trial of Mogor is a sham, resolved by a trick, in which the only reason the case is dropped is because tired, bereaved sailors wish to travel home rather than wait in the dungeon. Mogor’s innocence is a fiction which becomes reality through the power of stories. The story he is telling is so powerful that the emperor essentially declares him to be an innocent man, washing away terrible sins as the result of a compelling narrative. Akbar is willing to reshape the world on a fictitious whim, declaring people innocent or imagining women into existence. To the most powerful man in the empire, stories are so important that they should obliterate morality and reality in equal measure.

The power of stories allows Akbar to reshape his world, but he is shown to be beholden to his own fascination. At the end of Mogor’s story, Akbar takes control. He asserts his authority and finishes the story on the behalf of the storyteller. Akbar’s story is so powerful that Mogor is damned in the eyes of the court and sent away. Before Akbar can undo his mistake, Mogor is nearly killed, and he flees the city. A short time later, Sikri’s lake begins to disappear, and the people must abandon the city. Akbar examines the downfall of Sikri and his role in the abandonment of the city in purely narrative terms. Rather than think about the scientific explanation for the loss of the lake, his mind immediately fills in any possible explanation with a moralizing narrative. Akbar cannot help but think in terms of stories. He is the protagonist of the universe; any action is a narrative consequence of his mistakes or his accomplishments. Stories are so powerful in The Enchantress of Florence that even the ruler of the Mughal Empire has internalized a narrative interpretation of his own existence. The physical reality of the world is replaced by an expectation of storytelling; for the most powerful man in the empire, the stories are simply more powerful.