'This is a delightful, not to say enchanting book about enchantment and the possibilities for wonder in modern life in an era increasingly characterised by disenchantment... The text is beautifully woven, with many magical excerpts and episodes from the author's wide reading and extensive experience... A crucial reminder of what represents real quality of life.' – David Lorimer, Scientific and Medical Network
'Patrick Curry suggests that the opposite of enchantment is not disenchantment but glamour. Like Jung when he stated that the opposite of love is not hatred but power, Curry shows how glamour is a fabricated, false, fake version of enchantment. His demonstration is extremely convincing. Reading him, one feels like opening one's eyes wider.' – Ginette Paris, author of The Wisdom of the Psyche
'Curry's Enchantment is simply an enchanting book, built on the wonder of our relationship with existence. It is lyrically written for all who have been enchanted, and draws on his own experiences. It encourages each of us to consider the wonder and love we are gifted – and can return.' – Haydn Washington, author of A Sense of Wonder Towards Nature
'As Patrick Curry argues eloquently in his thoughtful examination of the human condition in these challenging modern times, "enchantment is an experience of wonder". This is no mere academic exercise, although he is surprisingly erudite in his choice of texts, writers and cultural icons to illustrate his thoughts on this vital feature of being fully human. Nor is this a fluffy 'New Age' extended essay on how much better this world would be if we were all nice to each other. Much of the material is philosophical or poetic in nature, drawn from inspirational writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Max Weber, and W.H. Auden. Although mainly positive in tone, Curry does not hold back from stating things as they are. He is passionately scathing in denunciation of elements in the present world that seek to enslave the human race as little more than robots.' – Magonia Review
'What could be more confounding than trying to understand 'enchantment', an uncanny power that by its very nature frustrates all comprehension? Yet in this small volume Patrick Curry accomplishes much. If we join him as he tracks several of the numberless styles of enchantment, if we pay heed to his insights and sometimes argue with him, we'll find ourselves slowly becoming more layered within ourselves, wiser, and maybe even wonder-struck.' – David Abram, author of The Spell of the Sensuous and Becoming Animal
'Understanding begins – and ends – in wonder. This book articulates simply, and in a personal and unpretentious manner, an urgently needed defence of wonder as indispensable to a true perception and just appreciation of the world. We neglect its message at our peril.' – Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and his Emissary
'An impressive erudition and literary sensibility animate the pages of this thoughtful book. With a light poetic touch Curry traces the many ways in which enchantment lies at the core of human experience, even in a world that does its best to disabuse and disillusion us. Detaching it from ideology, Curry sees enchantment as an irrepressible mode of our being present to things, and vice versa. The enchanted moments cannot be sustained yet they lay their claim on us time and time again by virtue of the fact that we are alive and capable of wonder.' – Robert Pogue Harrison, author of Forests: The Shadow of Civilization
