The Birth of Venus: Love and Death in Florence Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

The Birth of Venus: Love and Death in Florence Book

The Birth of Venus is all the more fascinating a historical novel for the author's inability to make up her mind what it is about. Is it a novel about the limited choices available to a woman with talent in Renaissance Florence--marriage or the convent? Or is it a novel about the choices you make to survive in a totalitarian society? As Savonarola takes Florence closer and closer to being an ascetic theocracy, Alessandra, her gay brother and his lover whom she has married for mutual protection find themselves in more and more peril. It could also be a detective story--Allesandra is in love with a painter whose religious mania and fascination with the body makes him a plausible suspect for a series of killings and dismemberments. Some historical novels wear their research too heavily--Dunant's is light, fluent and pacy, but her fascination with the possibilities revealed by research leaves her failing to make choices. The Birth of Venus is a highly intelligent novel kept from incoherence mostly by the intensely imagined Alessandra, through whose eyes we see the tragic end of a key moment in human culture and whose lively sensibility constantly sparks ideas about art and her time. --Roz KaveneyRead More

from£10.78 | RRP: £7.99
* Excludes Voucher Code Discount Also available Used from £2.80
  • Amazon

    * Reissued in a new look is this richly imagined historical novel that combines mystery, history, politics and passion in a story of gripping power, from the author of SACRED HEARTS

  • Play

    Alessandra is not quite fifteen when her prosperous merchant father brings a young painter back with him from Holland to adorn the walls of the new family chapel. She is fascinated by his talents and envious of his abilities and opportunities to paint to the glory of God. Soon her love of art and her lively independence are luring her into closer involvement with all sorts of taboo areas of life. On excursions into the streets of night-time Florence she observes a terrible evil stalking the city and witnesses the rise of the fiery young priest Savanarola who has set out to rid the city of vice richness even art itself. Alessandra must make crucial decisions about the shape of her adult life as Florence itself must choose between the old ways of the luxury-loving Medicis and the asceticism of Savanorola. And through it all there is the painter whose love will change everything.

  • BookDepository

    The Birth Of Venus : Paperback : Little, Brown Book Group : 9781844080359 : : 05 Jun 2003 : * Reissued in a new look is this richly imagined historical novel that combines mystery, history, politics and passion in a story of gripping power, from the author of SACRED HEARTS

  • 1844080358
  • 9781844080359
  • Sarah Dunant
  • 5 February 2004
  • Virago Press Ltd
  • Paperback (Book)
  • 432
  • New Ed
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. If you click through any of the links below and make a purchase we may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you). Click here to learn more.

Would you like your name to appear with the review?

We will post your book review within a day or so as long as it meets our guidelines and terms and conditions. All reviews submitted become the licensed property of www.find-book.co.uk as written in our terms and conditions. None of your personal details will be passed on to any other third party.

All form fields are required.