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The Flight from the Enchanter
Annette runs away from her finishing school but learns more than she bargained for in the real world beyond; the fierce and melacholy Rosa is torn between two Polish brothers; Peter is obsessed by an indecipherable ancient script. This is a story of a group of people under a spell, and the centre of it all is the mysterious Mischa Fox, the enchanter.
284 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
About the author
Iris Murdoch
127 books2,742 followersDame Jean Iris Murdoch
Irish-born British writer, university lecturer and prolific and highly professional novelist, Iris Murdoch dealt with everyday ethical or moral issues, sometimes in the light of myths. As a writer, she was a perfectionist who did not allow editors to change her text. Murdoch produced 26 novels in 40 years, the last written while she was suffering from Alzheimer disease.
"She wanted, through her novels, to reach all possible readers, in different ways and by different means: by the excitement of her story, its pace and its comedy, through its ideas and its philosophical implications, through the numinous atmosphere of her own original and created world--the world she must have glimpsed as she considered and planned her first steps in the art of fiction." (John Bayley in Elegy for Iris, 1998)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_Mur...
Irish-born British writer, university lecturer and prolific and highly professional novelist, Iris Murdoch dealt with everyday ethical or moral issues, sometimes in the light of myths. As a writer, she was a perfectionist who did not allow editors to change her text. Murdoch produced 26 novels in 40 years, the last written while she was suffering from Alzheimer disease.
"She wanted, through her novels, to reach all possible readers, in different ways and by different means: by the excitement of her story, its pace and its comedy, through its ideas and its philosophical implications, through the numinous atmosphere of her own original and created world--the world she must have glimpsed as she considered and planned her first steps in the art of fiction." (John Bayley in Elegy for Iris, 1998)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_Mur...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 144 reviews
June 10, 2008
Interesting 50s office sexual politics: secretaries slowly and carefully getting promoted and taking over, unchallenged. Cold war influences re the sinister aspect of central/eastern Europe, plus a right-of-passage novel regarding one character.
January 17, 2016
Description: Annette runs away from her finishing school but learns more than she bargained for in the real world beyond; the fierce and melancholy Rosa is torn between two Polish brothers; Peter is obsessed by an indecipherable ancient script. This is a story of a group of people under a spell, and the centre of it all is the mysterious Mischa Fox, the enchanter.
Opening: It was about three o'clock on a Friday afternoon when Annette decided to leave school. An Italian lesson was in progress. In an affected high-pitched voice the Italian tutor was reading aloud throm the twelfth canto of the Inferno.
My copy is the 3'6d 1964 Penguin edition. All the zest for writing is still apparent in this second book, enthusiam radiates off the page. Thoroughly enjoyed this weekend read, tucked up warm against the minus 18C.
"Blick is the dark half of Misha Fox's mind. He does the things that Mischa doesn't even think of. That's how Mischa can be so innocent."
3* Under the Net (1954)
3* The Flight from the Enchanter (1956)
O The Sandcastle (1957)
5* The Bell (1958)
WL The Unicorn(1963)
O An Unofficial Rose (1962)
TR The Nice and the Good (1968)
5* A Severed Head(1971)
5* The Black Prince(1973)
5* The Sacred and Profane Love Machine(1974)
5* A Word Child(1978)
5* The Sea, the Sea (1978)
4* Existentialists and Mystics Writings on Philosophy and Literature
4* Living on Paper: Letters from Iris Murdoch, 1934-1995
Opening: It was about three o'clock on a Friday afternoon when Annette decided to leave school. An Italian lesson was in progress. In an affected high-pitched voice the Italian tutor was reading aloud throm the twelfth canto of the Inferno.
My copy is the 3'6d 1964 Penguin edition. All the zest for writing is still apparent in this second book, enthusiam radiates off the page. Thoroughly enjoyed this weekend read, tucked up warm against the minus 18C."Blick is the dark half of Misha Fox's mind. He does the things that Mischa doesn't even think of. That's how Mischa can be so innocent."3* Under the Net (1954)
3* The Flight from the Enchanter (1956)
O The Sandcastle (1957)
5* The Bell (1958)
WL The Unicorn(1963)
O An Unofficial Rose (1962)
TR The Nice and the Good (1968)
5* A Severed Head(1971)
5* The Black Prince(1973)
5* The Sacred and Profane Love Machine(1974)
5* A Word Child(1978)
5* The Sea, the Sea (1978)
4* Existentialists and Mystics Writings on Philosophy and Literature
4* Living on Paper: Letters from Iris Murdoch, 1934-1995
May 7, 2010
I don't personally know anyone who has read Iris Murdoch's novels. This is her second novel and only the second one I have read. I find her books so far, to be refreshingly unique. In this one she explores the hold a strong personality can have over other people, denying them the freedom to live by their own determinism.
Only gradually does the reader realize which character in the story is the enchanter and by then you are so invested in several of his victims' lives, that you fear for them and thus are happy for each one's efforts at flight. As in her first novel, Under the Net, the characters are beyond the ordinary with quirks and bizarre behaviors, though many are portrayed with a dark humor. She pits the laughable characters against the admirable ones, so it is the tensions between characters rather than the somewhat thin plot that moves the story and compels the reader.
The novel takes place in 1950s London amidst literary people, early feminists, government bureaucrats and immigrants, but the moral theme of how much power any individual should concede to another over one's life is universal. I found the book moving and enjoyable.
February 8, 2013
I liked this a lot at the beginning; but by the end, I was kind of irritated and impatient to be done with it. Still, there is no gainsaying that Murdoch is an amazing writer. There are some extremely funny set pieces; there are elements of fable; and throughout it all, absolutely stunning prose - smooth, full of arresting but utterly convincing images, psychologically compelling.
September 9, 2013
The Flight from the Enchanter explores the complexities of many characters and how they are intersected through their acquaintance with the enigmatic press baron Mischa Fox. Fox, a polarizing force in their lives, seems to draw out what the notion of power represents to each one. To Nina the dressmaker, he represents fear, to Annette Cockeyne, the privileged debutante, he represents the magnetic allure of an absent father-figure, to frustrated scholar Peter Saward he is a riddle to be solved, to John Rainsborough the henpecked civil servant, someone to aspire to be, to former lover Rosa Keepe, someone to be kept at arms length, but always to be held in check should she throw up her independence in favour of a less complicated existence, and to her protective brother Hunter, a figure of loathing. The Mischa of the tale is a blank canvas to the reader, he reflects our individual perceptions of how we relate to power, to some he is irresistibly attractive, to others, via the calculating persona of his deputy Calvin Blick, he is a brute force for whom the means justify the end. Ultimately, Fox is misunderstood, and it is through the characters whose lives he exerts his thrall over that we come to know him, and them.
The masculine power represented by Fox is allegorically offset by his desired possession of the sufragette journal, Artemis. Partially owned by Rosa Keepe and edited by her brother Hunter, the journal represents Fox's desire to sublimate the feminine. The Artemis, like the deity it is named for, represents the fearless feminine, the huntress, she who punisedh Agamemnon, who slayed Orion. In this construct, Hunter represents Apollo, and Blick, the scorpion. We see glimpses of a Classical tragedy through Murdoch's allegories, and the novel takes on the symbolic mantle of how feminine power and reason, personified by Rosa, is in a state of constant flux via its proximity to the masculine. As such, the author creates a mid-twentieth century snapshot of feminism through a classical lens, and Saward's tinkering with the meanings of ancient texts takes on the symbolism of the timelessness of this struggle and the futility of trying to unravel it from a purely academic standpoint. Rosa never fully resolves this question in herself, but she makes considerable strides toward a better understanding of it through experience and reason. Whether masculine power is represented by sexual possession in her relationship to the Lusiewicz bothers, through the subtle influences of Mischa Fox, the impotent adulation of Saward, or the desire to protect as Hunter tries to do, Rosa must ultimately strike her own course if she is to take back her power.
Surprisingly modern, unexpectedly touching, by turns humorous and tragic, The Flight from the Enchanter is a thoroughly enjoyable read and might just make you a little wiser on the eternal dance of men and women.
The masculine power represented by Fox is allegorically offset by his desired possession of the sufragette journal, Artemis. Partially owned by Rosa Keepe and edited by her brother Hunter, the journal represents Fox's desire to sublimate the feminine. The Artemis, like the deity it is named for, represents the fearless feminine, the huntress, she who punisedh Agamemnon, who slayed Orion. In this construct, Hunter represents Apollo, and Blick, the scorpion. We see glimpses of a Classical tragedy through Murdoch's allegories, and the novel takes on the symbolic mantle of how feminine power and reason, personified by Rosa, is in a state of constant flux via its proximity to the masculine. As such, the author creates a mid-twentieth century snapshot of feminism through a classical lens, and Saward's tinkering with the meanings of ancient texts takes on the symbolism of the timelessness of this struggle and the futility of trying to unravel it from a purely academic standpoint. Rosa never fully resolves this question in herself, but she makes considerable strides toward a better understanding of it through experience and reason. Whether masculine power is represented by sexual possession in her relationship to the Lusiewicz bothers, through the subtle influences of Mischa Fox, the impotent adulation of Saward, or the desire to protect as Hunter tries to do, Rosa must ultimately strike her own course if she is to take back her power.
Surprisingly modern, unexpectedly touching, by turns humorous and tragic, The Flight from the Enchanter is a thoroughly enjoyable read and might just make you a little wiser on the eternal dance of men and women.
August 6, 2015
My first foray into Murdoch's oeuvre has left me a little confused and muddled.
A complicated book that never really delivers what it promises; too many non-sequiturs.
The premise really never culminates into anything. The characters are imprisoned (and thereby narrowed) by their own inaction and fear and far too many of them dissolve into tears at the slightest provocation. It frustrated me. I didn't take to any individual or feel any pathos for their respective plights. I wanted to slap some sense into all of them as their concerns were so easily resolved by merely accepting responsibility. As to why The Enchanter is considered as such is never really extrapolated from the jumbled messiness of his ineffable personal connexions. The evil of Calvin Blick seems aimless and inexplicable and as such not really evil at all ... His symbolic currency, if it was intended he have one at all, was completely lost on me.
If this is a clever book, then it's cleverness exceeds my reading abilities. I'm not dismissing it in its entirety though; it has literary merit of a modernist bent, and as such is worth a read.
A complicated book that never really delivers what it promises; too many non-sequiturs.
The premise really never culminates into anything. The characters are imprisoned (and thereby narrowed) by their own inaction and fear and far too many of them dissolve into tears at the slightest provocation. It frustrated me. I didn't take to any individual or feel any pathos for their respective plights. I wanted to slap some sense into all of them as their concerns were so easily resolved by merely accepting responsibility. As to why The Enchanter is considered as such is never really extrapolated from the jumbled messiness of his ineffable personal connexions. The evil of Calvin Blick seems aimless and inexplicable and as such not really evil at all ... His symbolic currency, if it was intended he have one at all, was completely lost on me.
If this is a clever book, then it's cleverness exceeds my reading abilities. I'm not dismissing it in its entirety though; it has literary merit of a modernist bent, and as such is worth a read.
November 1, 2015
The Flight from the Enchanter was Murdoch's second book, but it was my first introduction to my number-one writing hero, which made me long to also write about love and power and goodness and beauty and what makes up a human being. Suddenly, at the age of twenty, I wanted to say great things, like Murdoch, who, being a professor of philosophy, has a far greater claim to be able to write such things than I will ever have. However, if we can’t be inspired by the great exemplars, what hope is there?
Once I’d put down Enchanter, I went in search of all her other books, and then lay in constant wait for her to write the next, which she did, for years, every 18 or so months. Only her very last book, written while in the grip of Alzheimer’s, is not among my very favourite reads to this day. Enchanter isn’t her best book, for me that is The Sea The Sea, but it was the first I read. I loved Iris Murdoch from that moment on, and reading her made me think more deeply, write more avidly and dream great dreams.
Once I’d put down Enchanter, I went in search of all her other books, and then lay in constant wait for her to write the next, which she did, for years, every 18 or so months. Only her very last book, written while in the grip of Alzheimer’s, is not among my very favourite reads to this day. Enchanter isn’t her best book, for me that is The Sea The Sea, but it was the first I read. I loved Iris Murdoch from that moment on, and reading her made me think more deeply, write more avidly and dream great dreams.
March 23, 2010
I loved this book!!!! Once again (as with The Bell), the characters jump at you and move on their own. She has a way of interconnecting various characters in surprising ways - selecting only 3 or 4 of them in which to use omniscient voice, and those character really do grab you and make you want to come back to the book. I did find Mischa intriguing, and wished that she would have used the omniscient voice with him, but maybe that would have ruined his power, as I took him to be the Enchanter.
August 2, 2019
Iris Murdoch’s second novel, 1956, has several uproarious scenes and one hilarious character, whose name is Mrs Wingfield, Camilla if you’re on Christian-name terms, but it is very much darker than Murdoch’s first novel,
Under the Net
, with much of the sexual and moral and spiritual blackmail and mayhem I’d remembered from reading Murdoch thirty years ago.
For the time being I’m happy to continue reading Murdoch in order, but have #3 The Sandcastle only on order to arrive next week & already read #4 The Bell those thirty years ago, & so it’s a conundrum: waiting on chronology, nursing old wounds, or moving on to a #5 that sounds bloody even by Murdoch’s standards, A Severed Head . Not a bad set of rabbit holes to fall through in any order anyway, probably.
Fuller review of this one to follow possibly. It deserves better than it’s got. She’s more than a guilty pleasure and The Flight from the Enchanter exceeds the sum of its parts.
For the time being I’m happy to continue reading Murdoch in order, but have #3 The Sandcastle only on order to arrive next week & already read #4 The Bell those thirty years ago, & so it’s a conundrum: waiting on chronology, nursing old wounds, or moving on to a #5 that sounds bloody even by Murdoch’s standards, A Severed Head . Not a bad set of rabbit holes to fall through in any order anyway, probably.
Fuller review of this one to follow possibly. It deserves better than it’s got. She’s more than a guilty pleasure and The Flight from the Enchanter exceeds the sum of its parts.
August 28, 2022
Published in 1956 and set in England, this book tells several simultaneous intersecting stories. It contains a large cast of characters. A primary connecting character, Misha Fox, remains enigmatically in the background but retains a larger-than-life influence over the other storylines. Annette is a young woman who decides to leave school to start experiencing life. Hunter runs a small independent press that produces a magazine, which Fox wants to buy. Hunter’s sister, Rosa, is also involved in the business and tries to keep the sale from happening. She is (reluctantly) involved in a complicated relationship with two brothers, Jan and Stefan. There are many other characters that float in and out of the narrative. It reads as a pastiche of different people living in proximity to each other. I found it reasonably entertaining but disjointed. There is no overarching story arc. Themes include migration and emerging independent roles for women. I have read other novels by Iris Murdoch that I enjoyed more than this one.
October 20, 2013
Murdoch seems to have a limitless talent for taking any idea, however promising, in the wrong direction. It may have something to do with her predilection for mythological and classical parallels. The problem is, you can't go chasing archetypes in this dogged manner. They invariably elude the direct approach, and more often than not the author is left high and dry.
February 17, 2021
As well as attempting to read all of Margaret Atwood’s novels, I will also be tackling Iris Murdoch’s 26 works of fiction. Both projects will take a long time, although I must admit that Murdoch’s novels constantly go in and out of print so there could be problems but we’ll see ( I am kicking myself for not investing in her back catalogue in 2001 when Vintage reissued it, with pretty covers)
The Flight of the Enchanter is her second novel, and although it is better than her first, Under the Net , there are still bugs. I’ll get into that later.
The plot circulates around a group of people: 19 year old Annette, who escapes school and wants to experience life , Rosa, an ex journalist who works in a factory, and her brother Hunter. Both siblings run a surfragette magazine and are in the process of selling it. They also are looking after Annette. At the same time Rosa is seeing two Polish brothers. There’s also John Rainborough who is being usurped by his typist Miss Casement, Nina, a foreign dressmaker and Peter Saward, a man who Rosa actually loves and devotes his life to decoding foreign languages. All the characters are under the spell of Mischa Fox (aka the enchanter of the title), who is connected to these characters. He also has an agent called Calvin Blick who wants to buy out the Surfragette magazine for Mischa. To say that Mischa is a person of influence is an understatement, in their own way the characters know this and try to break free from him.
The novel details these characters’ lives intersecting with each other, the main highlight being a party that Mischa holds, which ends in a disaster but is one of the more memorable scenes in the book. Murdoch always had a cinematic touch to her writing and I could see this scene being executed brilliantly on film.
The main theme is immigration. Both Nina and the Polish Brothers are first generation immigrants, however Annette and Mischa hail from different countries as well, however the first three character are treated differently and later on in the book, their status is threatened, in one case the results are quite tragic. On one hand this can be seen as how post war britain saw immigrants but on the other hand one can see how Britan was seen as a haven for people in war torn countries.
The other theme is liberation; All characters want to break free from controlling Mischa, which includes the Surfragette magazine as just before it is sold to Mischa a group of surfragettes save it. Annette also wants to break free from her bond with the brothers and Annette thinks freedom is learning without the need of education. Do the characters break free by the end? That’s questionable.
The Flight from the Enchanter contains some trademarks which occur in later Murdoch novels, mainly a large cast, who are interconnected, some elemnts that are mystical and well rounded characters. As this is a second novel this doesn’t really work out too well. Actually due to the amount of characters Flight.. is pretty messy. I do understand that this was a first attempt and it definitely was perfected but it also does suffer from superfluous scenes: the bit in Italy, some of the chapters in the brothers house, John’s visit to Peter. There’s also an assault scene which would not sit very well in 2021.
One reason why I like reading an author, with a sizable bibliography from the beginning is that I get a snapshot of how the writer developed. It also is proof that style, plots are not fully formed from the first novel, rather it’s a slow process. The next Iris Murdoch novel I will be reading is The Sandcastle and I’m curious to see what it will be like.
The Flight of the Enchanter is her second novel, and although it is better than her first, Under the Net , there are still bugs. I’ll get into that later.
The plot circulates around a group of people: 19 year old Annette, who escapes school and wants to experience life , Rosa, an ex journalist who works in a factory, and her brother Hunter. Both siblings run a surfragette magazine and are in the process of selling it. They also are looking after Annette. At the same time Rosa is seeing two Polish brothers. There’s also John Rainborough who is being usurped by his typist Miss Casement, Nina, a foreign dressmaker and Peter Saward, a man who Rosa actually loves and devotes his life to decoding foreign languages. All the characters are under the spell of Mischa Fox (aka the enchanter of the title), who is connected to these characters. He also has an agent called Calvin Blick who wants to buy out the Surfragette magazine for Mischa. To say that Mischa is a person of influence is an understatement, in their own way the characters know this and try to break free from him.
The novel details these characters’ lives intersecting with each other, the main highlight being a party that Mischa holds, which ends in a disaster but is one of the more memorable scenes in the book. Murdoch always had a cinematic touch to her writing and I could see this scene being executed brilliantly on film.
The main theme is immigration. Both Nina and the Polish Brothers are first generation immigrants, however Annette and Mischa hail from different countries as well, however the first three character are treated differently and later on in the book, their status is threatened, in one case the results are quite tragic. On one hand this can be seen as how post war britain saw immigrants but on the other hand one can see how Britan was seen as a haven for people in war torn countries.
The other theme is liberation; All characters want to break free from controlling Mischa, which includes the Surfragette magazine as just before it is sold to Mischa a group of surfragettes save it. Annette also wants to break free from her bond with the brothers and Annette thinks freedom is learning without the need of education. Do the characters break free by the end? That’s questionable.
The Flight from the Enchanter contains some trademarks which occur in later Murdoch novels, mainly a large cast, who are interconnected, some elemnts that are mystical and well rounded characters. As this is a second novel this doesn’t really work out too well. Actually due to the amount of characters Flight.. is pretty messy. I do understand that this was a first attempt and it definitely was perfected but it also does suffer from superfluous scenes: the bit in Italy, some of the chapters in the brothers house, John’s visit to Peter. There’s also an assault scene which would not sit very well in 2021.
One reason why I like reading an author, with a sizable bibliography from the beginning is that I get a snapshot of how the writer developed. It also is proof that style, plots are not fully formed from the first novel, rather it’s a slow process. The next Iris Murdoch novel I will be reading is The Sandcastle and I’m curious to see what it will be like.
May 30, 2022
At first, I wasn't sure what this book was saying. There are a good amount of characters that all have important roles, and I didn't see how it came together. Of course, from the title, there is one person that binds everyone together in some way, shape, or form, but his character is as illusive as his actual person is to the other characters within the story.
The conclusion that I finally came to is that everyone in the story looks to Mischa Fox for answers and guidance. They each rely on him in different ways (except, arguably, one character, who is the most independent and self-assured of them all), and they look at him as Fate, the one who can decide their destinies, and once they rely on him, they abandon themselves and let themselves be carried away. However, in the end, Rosa Keepe realizes that it was never Mischa--it was always her own decisions, but it's easier to convince oneself that one's decisions are being made for one, that there was no other way, that one didn't really mean to do this or that, but one was compelled to do so. But people aren't tropical fish in a large bowl, they aren't insects on the ground in Italy, they aren't animals on a tapestry. People are living, breathing, autonomous beings that make their own choices and have to be responsible to and for them, facing the consequences and maintaining agency. They can't blame others for their decisions. Rosa has to face the photograph, and Annette has to accept her worldview, John has to admit how he really feels, Hunter has to grow up, Nina had another option.
It turns out that the enchanter isn't the obvious choice--Mischa--the enchanter is oneself, and if we're always flying from ourselves, we'll never be happy. We'll never accept the weight of our decisions and choices and bear the responsibility. There comes a time when everything has to stop, we have to face it, and we have to keep going. No more flying, just living.
For me, this book isn't nearly as beloved as Under the Net, but I did enjoy it. Murdoch had this gift for making me want to read more, for making me connected, wanting to piece everything together. Her writing is so weird--these bizarre things happen in real-world settings, yet they somehow make sense within the context of her stories. I love that she goes there. Her writing is detailed, in this book sometimes superfluously, but it also has momentum. I wanted to know what would happen next. She builds up suspense in interesting ways. In this book, there is a lot of commentary about society and culture, which I enjoyed. The immigrant issue is obviously up there, and I love the contrast between Nina's story and that of the Lusiewicz brothers (which I just clicked on to check spelling and saw the alternate offering "Lucifer" and now wonder about that name...) in this context, especially considering what Calvin Blick tells Rosa in the end, that England wouldn't really deport the immigrants, but that those who were bad people would essentially deport themselves out of fear. There is also the feminist newspaper that isn't really feminist anymore and the whole storyline with John Rainborough and his secretary, Miss Casement, and what happens in their corporation. Then, there's the subtitle, "A story of love and power," that you could interpret in various ways.
So, this book is really interesting and thought-provoking. I enjoyed reading it, and I recommend it if you like a detailed, layered story with tons of symbolism and various social issues being dissected from strange angles and weird action scenes and characters you may or may not even like but may learn, like I did, to enjoy reading about and even to sympathize with.
The conclusion that I finally came to is that everyone in the story looks to Mischa Fox for answers and guidance. They each rely on him in different ways (except, arguably, one character, who is the most independent and self-assured of them all), and they look at him as Fate, the one who can decide their destinies, and once they rely on him, they abandon themselves and let themselves be carried away. However, in the end, Rosa Keepe realizes that it was never Mischa--it was always her own decisions, but it's easier to convince oneself that one's decisions are being made for one, that there was no other way, that one didn't really mean to do this or that, but one was compelled to do so. But people aren't tropical fish in a large bowl, they aren't insects on the ground in Italy, they aren't animals on a tapestry. People are living, breathing, autonomous beings that make their own choices and have to be responsible to and for them, facing the consequences and maintaining agency. They can't blame others for their decisions. Rosa has to face the photograph, and Annette has to accept her worldview, John has to admit how he really feels, Hunter has to grow up, Nina had another option.
It turns out that the enchanter isn't the obvious choice--Mischa--the enchanter is oneself, and if we're always flying from ourselves, we'll never be happy. We'll never accept the weight of our decisions and choices and bear the responsibility. There comes a time when everything has to stop, we have to face it, and we have to keep going. No more flying, just living.
For me, this book isn't nearly as beloved as Under the Net, but I did enjoy it. Murdoch had this gift for making me want to read more, for making me connected, wanting to piece everything together. Her writing is so weird--these bizarre things happen in real-world settings, yet they somehow make sense within the context of her stories. I love that she goes there. Her writing is detailed, in this book sometimes superfluously, but it also has momentum. I wanted to know what would happen next. She builds up suspense in interesting ways. In this book, there is a lot of commentary about society and culture, which I enjoyed. The immigrant issue is obviously up there, and I love the contrast between Nina's story and that of the Lusiewicz brothers (which I just clicked on to check spelling and saw the alternate offering "Lucifer" and now wonder about that name...) in this context, especially considering what Calvin Blick tells Rosa in the end, that England wouldn't really deport the immigrants, but that those who were bad people would essentially deport themselves out of fear. There is also the feminist newspaper that isn't really feminist anymore and the whole storyline with John Rainborough and his secretary, Miss Casement, and what happens in their corporation. Then, there's the subtitle, "A story of love and power," that you could interpret in various ways.
So, this book is really interesting and thought-provoking. I enjoyed reading it, and I recommend it if you like a detailed, layered story with tons of symbolism and various social issues being dissected from strange angles and weird action scenes and characters you may or may not even like but may learn, like I did, to enjoy reading about and even to sympathize with.
December 28, 2017
4.5 stars
One of the things about reading an author’s work in sequence, is that you get to see how their style and voice changes with each book or, which elements stay the same. After reading Under the Net, Iris Murdoch’s first novel, The Flight from the Enchanter is quite a different book. Like the first novel, there are some madcap moments, such as the Artemis magazine shareholders meeting, there is a mystery revolving around an enigmatic character and the class structure of the day plays a part. Also at the end of the novel there is the feeling that the central characters haven’t progressed very far, despite ridding themselves of house guests, study or jobs, but that change will happen beyond the end of the book.
What is primarily absent from the first novel, however, is a sense of menace and malice. This begins with Rosa and her unsettling relationship with the two Polish men, intensifies with the creepy John Rainborough and ends with the sadistic Calvin Blick, henchman for the enigmatic but equally menacing Mischa Fox. There were parts of the novel, particularly involving Anette where I was very uncomfortable with how the women were being treated and I was very glad when Mrs. Wingfield and her cronies came on the scene for some momentary light relief. Iris Murdoch is very adept at changing the mood between chapters and alternating the more serious aspects with the gentler or comedic.
The book begins in a fun and lighthearted way as the young and pretty Annette decides to leave school and learn from life, however, she swings from one disaster to another and finds herself caught up, as Rosa, Nina and Rainborough, in situations they find almost impossible to get out of. All of them are ‘fleeing’ from something and not necessarily the ‘Enchanter’ which, I assume is Mischa. How these four extricate themselves from such situations, vary widely and end very differently and is perhaps a commentary on the greater options for those with rank and money than for those who are poor or immigrants - apt for our own times.
As well as class, the book has a great deal to say about gender and power ranging from Mischa and Rainborough’s distasteful discussion about taming women, to the women of the shareholders board trumping Mischa’s wishes. The intrigues of the women in the SELIB board who are working their way up by hard work and brains against the good old boy network, is amusing and insightful and relatable once again to our own time period of unequal pay and harassment at work.
It is a complex book and I can see why Liz, who put me onto Iris Murdoch, has reread the books so many times. I’m sure there are lots of intelligent things to say about it as the introduction to my Vintage edition shows but I am going to leave that to those better qualified. Ultimately, despite the occasional discomfort I thoroughly enjoyed Murdoch’s wonderful writing and her characterization and I am looking forward very much to continuing my journey next year with The Sandcastle.
One of the things about reading an author’s work in sequence, is that you get to see how their style and voice changes with each book or, which elements stay the same. After reading Under the Net, Iris Murdoch’s first novel, The Flight from the Enchanter is quite a different book. Like the first novel, there are some madcap moments, such as the Artemis magazine shareholders meeting, there is a mystery revolving around an enigmatic character and the class structure of the day plays a part. Also at the end of the novel there is the feeling that the central characters haven’t progressed very far, despite ridding themselves of house guests, study or jobs, but that change will happen beyond the end of the book.
What is primarily absent from the first novel, however, is a sense of menace and malice. This begins with Rosa and her unsettling relationship with the two Polish men, intensifies with the creepy John Rainborough and ends with the sadistic Calvin Blick, henchman for the enigmatic but equally menacing Mischa Fox. There were parts of the novel, particularly involving Anette where I was very uncomfortable with how the women were being treated and I was very glad when Mrs. Wingfield and her cronies came on the scene for some momentary light relief. Iris Murdoch is very adept at changing the mood between chapters and alternating the more serious aspects with the gentler or comedic.
The book begins in a fun and lighthearted way as the young and pretty Annette decides to leave school and learn from life, however, she swings from one disaster to another and finds herself caught up, as Rosa, Nina and Rainborough, in situations they find almost impossible to get out of. All of them are ‘fleeing’ from something and not necessarily the ‘Enchanter’ which, I assume is Mischa. How these four extricate themselves from such situations, vary widely and end very differently and is perhaps a commentary on the greater options for those with rank and money than for those who are poor or immigrants - apt for our own times.
As well as class, the book has a great deal to say about gender and power ranging from Mischa and Rainborough’s distasteful discussion about taming women, to the women of the shareholders board trumping Mischa’s wishes. The intrigues of the women in the SELIB board who are working their way up by hard work and brains against the good old boy network, is amusing and insightful and relatable once again to our own time period of unequal pay and harassment at work.
It is a complex book and I can see why Liz, who put me onto Iris Murdoch, has reread the books so many times. I’m sure there are lots of intelligent things to say about it as the introduction to my Vintage edition shows but I am going to leave that to those better qualified. Ultimately, despite the occasional discomfort I thoroughly enjoyed Murdoch’s wonderful writing and her characterization and I am looking forward very much to continuing my journey next year with The Sandcastle.
March 31, 2024
A bunch of queens having a diva-off for no reason
May 28, 2026
As with many Murdoch novels, I found many of the events, characters and themes to be quite interesting. However, this book as a whole left me unsatisfied both while reading and at the end.
There are several reasons I felt unsatisfied.
First, the novel had too many characters. There are so many introduced at the beginning that I forgot who one character was because, while he was referred to by others, he disappeared from the scene for most of the book before reappearing at the end. With this amount and variety of characters, it became difficult to identify with and to care about what happened to most of them.
Second, while Murdoch creates some remarkably interesting characters, they often act too unrealistically. This book seemed to have too many such characters for the situations to feel right, making it all too fictional and unreal.
Finally, this plethora of characters resulted in an overabundance of relationships and plots, causing a few of them to not be adequately addressed during the book's ending resolutions. A plot I was very interested in, involving intra-office politics and gender roles, was developed to a certain point, then left alone and ultimately resolved but in a brusque manner.
While I did enjoy some of the events and situations that Murdoch presented here, I felt the various plots and themes did not result in an overall satisfying novel. As always, though, I enjoyed Murdoch’s writing style and insights. I have rated it 3 stars as I would rank this somewhere in the lower half of the 18 Murdoch novels I have read.
There are several reasons I felt unsatisfied.
First, the novel had too many characters. There are so many introduced at the beginning that I forgot who one character was because, while he was referred to by others, he disappeared from the scene for most of the book before reappearing at the end. With this amount and variety of characters, it became difficult to identify with and to care about what happened to most of them.
Second, while Murdoch creates some remarkably interesting characters, they often act too unrealistically. This book seemed to have too many such characters for the situations to feel right, making it all too fictional and unreal.
Finally, this plethora of characters resulted in an overabundance of relationships and plots, causing a few of them to not be adequately addressed during the book's ending resolutions. A plot I was very interested in, involving intra-office politics and gender roles, was developed to a certain point, then left alone and ultimately resolved but in a brusque manner.
While I did enjoy some of the events and situations that Murdoch presented here, I felt the various plots and themes did not result in an overall satisfying novel. As always, though, I enjoyed Murdoch’s writing style and insights. I have rated it 3 stars as I would rank this somewhere in the lower half of the 18 Murdoch novels I have read.
February 4, 2021
3.5
I’m at the point in my journey with Murdoch where I feel like I can pick up a book and know what to expect and what I always expect is that I should expect the unexpected. And this book delivered. The Flight From the Enchanter features Murdoch’s quintessential eccentricity, the idea that you can’t ever really know anyone, a sprinkle of Wittgenstein and an ending that leaves you questioning what any of the characters even learned. We follow them as they are enchanted and trying to escape enchantment from men, from people in power, from useless translations, from misogyny, from religion, from this contemptible world. These characters are wafting about, lacking any semblance of self assurance and to lose faith, to let go of their enchantments, is perhaps too much for all of them. And how they are able to extricate themselves speaks more on their class status than their own mental condition. It’s brutal, it’s bleak, ‘it is what it is.’ Luckily, we have those wildly off the cuff Madcap Murdoch Moments™️ and her sharp wit to keep us going.
“Unfortunately she did not feel ill, but only extremely miserable.” Okay, Iris, ya.
I’m at the point in my journey with Murdoch where I feel like I can pick up a book and know what to expect and what I always expect is that I should expect the unexpected. And this book delivered. The Flight From the Enchanter features Murdoch’s quintessential eccentricity, the idea that you can’t ever really know anyone, a sprinkle of Wittgenstein and an ending that leaves you questioning what any of the characters even learned. We follow them as they are enchanted and trying to escape enchantment from men, from people in power, from useless translations, from misogyny, from religion, from this contemptible world. These characters are wafting about, lacking any semblance of self assurance and to lose faith, to let go of their enchantments, is perhaps too much for all of them. And how they are able to extricate themselves speaks more on their class status than their own mental condition. It’s brutal, it’s bleak, ‘it is what it is.’ Luckily, we have those wildly off the cuff Madcap Murdoch Moments™️ and her sharp wit to keep us going.
“Unfortunately she did not feel ill, but only extremely miserable.” Okay, Iris, ya.
June 28, 2017
What I enjoy most in a book is to get partway into one and find that I'm reading something quite unlike anything I've read before. This novel is very much like that. I have been stalking the used bookstores for years looking for a copy of Under The Net, and have not found one, but I did find this and quickly picked it up.
Very soon afterwards I was writing to a friend, telling her that I was reading a strange book, but a good one, that was very unusual. It is a small handful of books that glide along on a well-crafted narrative, from one bizarre scene piled on top of the next, so that by the time you've come to the end you feel as though you've been to the carnival.
Very soon afterwards I was writing to a friend, telling her that I was reading a strange book, but a good one, that was very unusual. It is a small handful of books that glide along on a well-crafted narrative, from one bizarre scene piled on top of the next, so that by the time you've come to the end you feel as though you've been to the carnival.
December 19, 2018
Prefigures...Brexit, Me Too, press lords (Murdoch/Maxwell?)
Hints of "The Turn of the Screw'' in the complicated sibling relationships.
Wonderful set pieces - the "committee meeting'' of Artemis, the dreadful Gatsbyian party at Mischa Fox's mansion. Told contrapuntally, with Murdoch's trademark gravity, proportion, intimation of the tragic in quotidian lives. There are no doubt flaws, as readers here point out, but to me, the merits far outnumber them.
And the prose is lovely, lucid, never hyper-inflated or overwritten...
Hints of "The Turn of the Screw'' in the complicated sibling relationships.
Wonderful set pieces - the "committee meeting'' of Artemis, the dreadful Gatsbyian party at Mischa Fox's mansion. Told contrapuntally, with Murdoch's trademark gravity, proportion, intimation of the tragic in quotidian lives. There are no doubt flaws, as readers here point out, but to me, the merits far outnumber them.
And the prose is lovely, lucid, never hyper-inflated or overwritten...
January 17, 2017
I really enjoyed reading the novel. It is a very full story - nice composition of characters, intense narrative and deep insight of contemporary issues that might freeze you even nowadays - deportations, threats, illegal work etc.
Read
February 19, 2009"Never mind what they establish!" said Rosa. "So all your work was for nothing, for nothing!" She spoke half angrily, half in grief.
Yup.
Yup.
July 10, 2017
A book where apparently people never lock their doors and when you don't, a Polish guy will creep into your house and set your lil' brother's hair on fire.
July 25, 2026
Ietwat fragmentarisch als roman maar (nog steeds) zeer pertinent als het over het lot van vluchtelingen gaat.
January 4, 2021
3.5 stars -- Murdoch is one of my favorite writers ever: she gracefully blends grand philosophical ideas with detailed, complex interpersonal relationships to create a dancefloor for her to dance around the human psyche. And while I never really got what was going on in this book, it was enjoyable and worth the effort. Most of her plots are mildly convoluted but move her ideas forward and act as a framework for her moral analysis. However, this book has too many characters for its own good. With so many primary characters, Murdoch doesn't have enough time or pages to build appropriate backstories and motivations. Nonetheless, it is compelling and very Murdochian in its style and scenes.
Most Murdoch novels have a mysterious, semi-magical character that doesn't take up much place on the stage but imbues the story with enchantment. In this case, Murdoch even calls it out in the book's title, and the titular character is Mischa Fox, an influential man of mystery whom everyone in the book wants be friends with. The best part of the book for me is the evolution of the interesting relationship between Rosa, one of Mischa's lovers, and two Scandinavian immigrant brothers who work with her at a local factory. All the individual scenes are good, but the lack of cohesion and a few too many balls in the air keep this from being a great book.
Most Murdoch novels have a mysterious, semi-magical character that doesn't take up much place on the stage but imbues the story with enchantment. In this case, Murdoch even calls it out in the book's title, and the titular character is Mischa Fox, an influential man of mystery whom everyone in the book wants be friends with. The best part of the book for me is the evolution of the interesting relationship between Rosa, one of Mischa's lovers, and two Scandinavian immigrant brothers who work with her at a local factory. All the individual scenes are good, but the lack of cohesion and a few too many balls in the air keep this from being a great book.
November 29, 2020
*WARNING - You're about to head into Spoiler Town, please turn around if this is not your intended destination*
*Disclaimer - this is required reading for university*
Let me tell you something, fellow random reader who happened to come across this review, there is no better feeling than reading a frankly awful book that all the other members of your cohort at university simulataneously hate. We can't really say what made us hate "The Flight from the Enchanter" so much, it was just such a struggle to read. The ambiguity in this book was painful to read and follow - this coming from a fan of ambiguity, although not to the extent that Murdoch uses it in this novel.
The characters, an endless cast that all seemed to blur into one, seemed two-dimensional to me and I often found myself losing track of who was who and how one person linked to another.
And the ENDING?!
I'll stop now, as I'm sure my moaning about this novel is now officially grating on you, anonymous reader. Feel free to give this book a read, if only to see why myself and my fellow English Lit students hate it so very, very much.
*Disclaimer - this is required reading for university*
Let me tell you something, fellow random reader who happened to come across this review, there is no better feeling than reading a frankly awful book that all the other members of your cohort at university simulataneously hate. We can't really say what made us hate "The Flight from the Enchanter" so much, it was just such a struggle to read. The ambiguity in this book was painful to read and follow - this coming from a fan of ambiguity, although not to the extent that Murdoch uses it in this novel.
The characters, an endless cast that all seemed to blur into one, seemed two-dimensional to me and I often found myself losing track of who was who and how one person linked to another.
And the ENDING?!
I'll stop now, as I'm sure my moaning about this novel is now officially grating on you, anonymous reader. Feel free to give this book a read, if only to see why myself and my fellow English Lit students hate it so very, very much.
February 24, 2008
The story of a group of people who love and fear the magician who affects all their lives: the ravishing and eccentric young Annette who, after swinging on a chandilier, runs away from her finishing school to enter the School of Life, and learns a good deal more than she bargained for: the fierce and melancholy Rosa, the mistress of two Polish brothers: her brother, editor of a down-at-heel magazine: the scholar, Peter Saward, obsessed by an indecipherale ancient script: Rainborough, a civil servant, struggling in the toils of his secretary. Their lives revolve around the mysterious figure of Mischa Fox, a frightening, yet also touching, figure of power. Each is posessed by some person, idea, illusion or object. Each tries to break the spell, to flee the enchanter.
I found this to be an excellent, often bizarre novel. I have been reading an Iris Murdoch book a month with some friends, we then discuss it vi email, and we have found lots to talk about with this early novel.
I found this to be an excellent, often bizarre novel. I have been reading an Iris Murdoch book a month with some friends, we then discuss it vi email, and we have found lots to talk about with this early novel.
March 6, 2015
L'INCANTATORE di Iris Murdoch mi ha lasciata perplessa, perché non l'ho capito. Ci sono tanti personaggi le cui vicende sono intrecciate, ho impiegato più o meno mezzo libro (composto da poco meno di 300 pagine) per cogliere chi fosse l'incantatore del titolo (il che, secondo la scuola di sceneggiatura da cui provengo, è UN DELITTO GRAVISSIMO!), sono rimasta abbastanza intrigata dalla prima parte, perché scorre veloce, è accattivante e stuzzichevole, anche sotto il profilo del sottile erotismo di cui è pregna. La seconda invece è lenta. Inesorabilmente noiosa. Ho faticato a finire le ultime 10 pagine, che ho letto nello stesso tempo delle prime 200. Trattasi di vicende di giovani londinesi, forse annoiati, forse incasinati, forse invischiati in vicende meramente familiari, mai davvero tragiche, mai davvero comiche, fané, sottilmente understatement. Consigliato ad aspiranti scrittori flemmatici.
October 6, 2020
I found this book a little confusing and I didn't always care where it was going. I loved the writing style - I think Murdoch is fantastic at describing surroundings and moods. The characters were all quite distinctive, which was good, but their motivations weren't always clear to me.
The political aspect was very interesting - and sad - especially given the UK's current relationship with the E.U.
I think the ending was quite satisfying, in that it brought the story more-or-less full circle. Maybe I'll have to re-read it in a year or so, in order to see if I get anything more from it.
The political aspect was very interesting - and sad - especially given the UK's current relationship with the E.U.
I think the ending was quite satisfying, in that it brought the story more-or-less full circle. Maybe I'll have to re-read it in a year or so, in order to see if I get anything more from it.
March 29, 2025
Nu voor de derde keer gelezen. Het blijft een geweldige schrijver.
June 2, 2020
What is it about her writing I can’t put down? My obsession with Murdoch continues.
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