Preface In Iris Murdoch's The Flight From the Enchanter(1955),the second of her 26 published novels,the mysterious Mischa Fox describes his belief in"the way in which magic can be part of ordinary life"(Murdoch,Flight 192).Murdoch(1919-1999),and her contemporaries Margaret Drabble (b.1939)and A.S.Byatt (b.1936),make reference to the magic of fairy tales in their fiction to show characters moving away from isolation and alienation and towards community.That journey,and the ways in which fairy tales are used by these authors to describe it,are,however,charged with ambivalence in the fiction.Characters in the works of these authors feel the attractions of a solitary existence.Many protagonists have a distant relationship with their families,are involved in romances that have been based on fantasy and illusion,and are anxious about participating in a wider community that will judge them.If certain characters surrender to the temptation to withdraw from the complexities of modern life,however,happiness in these novels seems to be reserved for those who resist.Furthermore,in the worlds described by these authors,the pursuit of relationships is intimately connected with a moral life.Although the three writers have stopped short of calling themselves optimists, their encouraging view of modern humanity,as inspired to seek out meaningful relationships with others despite the difficulty of those engagements,serves to set them apart somewhat from other contemporary British novelists. Folklore scholars have remarked on the movement towards community in fairy tales.Writing about the German fairy tales of the Grimm brothers,cultural materialist Jack Zipes notes,"It is interesting that the Grimm protagonist is nothing alone,by him or