A tall, yellow-haired young European traveler 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 Koz, 'Lady Black Eyes', a great beauty believed to possess powers of enchantment and sorcery, who is taken captive first by an Uzbek 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 mesmerized by her presence, and much trouble ensues."The Enchantress of Florence" is the story of a woman attempting to command her own destiny in a man's world. It brings together two cities that barely know each other - the hedonistic Mughal capital, in which the brilliant emperor wrestles daily with questions of belief, desire and the treachery of sons, and the equally sensual Florentine world of powerful courtesans, humanist philosophy and inhuman torture, where Argalia's boyhood friend 'il Machia' - Niccolo Machiavelli - is learning, the hard way, about the true brutality of power. These two worlds, so far apart, turn out to be uncannily alike, and the enchantments of women hold sway over them both. 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?

萨曼·鲁西迪 (1947-),英国著名作家。生于印度孟买一个穆斯林家庭,在英国接受教育。一九七五年他的第一部小说出版,第二部小说《午夜之子》为他赢得了国际声誉。之后他的一系列作品深入探讨了历史和哲学问题,被称为“后殖民文学教父”。在世界文坛,鲁西迪是所有国际大奖的宠 儿,他高产且作品高质量,经得专业人士的品评,也赢得无数读者的好评,受到君特·格拉斯、戈迪默、米兰·昆德拉等世界文学大师的一致推崇。他的《午夜之子》,三次获得布克奖,可谓“布克奖”之尊。鲁西迪目前共出版长篇小说十部、短篇小说集三部,另有两部儿童作品、一部回忆录及十余部非小说作品。主要作品有《午夜之子》《羞耻》《摩尔人的最后叹息》《她脚下的土地》《小丑萨利玛》《佛罗伦萨的神女》等。

译者 刘凯芳 (1941-2016),厦门大学外文学院英语系教授,《厦门大学学报（哲社版）》编委。长期从事英语语言文学教学与文学翻译工作。译作有《可以吃的女人》、《品彻·马丁》、《叛逆年代》《爱上浪漫》《处女与吉普赛人》、《匹克威克外传》等,另有大量的中短篇译作发表于《外国文艺》《世界文学》等刊物。