Set in 18th century Italy, this novel takes the reader to the world of castrated male sopranos. Tonio Treschi is descended from a great Venetian family. Suddenly at 15, he is violently despoiled of his heritage, plunged into nightmare, trapped in a murderous family plot.
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First Sentence
GUIDO MAFFEO was castrated when he was six years old and sent to study with the finest singing masters in Naples. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
GUIDO MAFFEO was castrated when he was six years old and sent to study with the finest singing masters in Naples. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This was my first Anne Rice book and I was not disapointed, the incredible amount of research and detail that has gone into writing this book go to show just good she is at this!
The plot is a little confusing to start with but as it progresses the strands come together to make a complicated plot of family life, social life and art within 18th century Italy.
The depth of emotions and feelings portraited are amazing and the book becomes incredibly hard to put down once you get into it.
I would recomend this book to everyone with an interest in history, especially Italian, whether they are an Anne Rice fan or not.
The plot is a little confusing to start with but as it progresses the strands come together to make a complicated plot of family life, social life and art within 18th century Italy.
The depth of emotions and feelings portraited are amazing and the book becomes incredibly hard to put down once you get into it.
I would recomend this book to everyone with an interest in history, especially Italian, whether they are an Anne Rice fan or not.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Cry to heaven is one of the best books I have ever read. I read about 50 books a year. Anne Rice writes so visually that I felt like a fly on the wall in voluptously over-ripe Venice witnessing the agonies and ecstacies of the characters. If this were made into a film it would be filmed with red and orange tints which could only begin to paint it in the richness that it deserves. Read it but make sure that you have nothing else scheduled because you will not put it down!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
A sensitive and compassionate look at the long vanished world of the castrati. Anne Rice evokes the Italy of the high opera with the same care and attention to detail that she has demonstrated in her other novels. Her finely crafted characters come to life with such vigour that you can almost hear the fragile soprano voices echoing out from the cathedrals and stages of europe. I could not put this book down.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Eva Rosenbæk
Format:Paperback
I started reading books in English (outside of school) because I could not get all of Anne Rice's books in a Danish translation - 'Cry to Heaven' was one of them.
This book is not like the vampire chronicles. There is nothing supernatural about the characters and yet the tale is just as enchanting as Anne Rice's books on vampires and witches. The reason for this is the powerful personalities and the complicated plot which is supported by a frame of vast knowledge of the period.
The story evolves around a young boy whose faith is sealed even before he reaches manhood. It is a story about a boy who rises to the challenge and fights to solve the greatest most scary mystery of his life and at last meets the person who has built his life on the ruin of the young boy.
I recomment this book to anyone who enjoys a good but complicated story - because the plot IS complicated.
By Jill
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
a moving and very absorbing story. Loved the main characters whose emotions were beautifully written. the period setting was brought to life by the excellent descriptions.
By JeannieB
Format:Paperback
Cry to Heaven. This is an excellent book with an intriguing story. I first read this book a few years ago and was mesmerised by it. I then moved house and lost the book. Luckily I found it again on Amazon and ordered another copy. I've kept this one safe so that I can dip in and out of it. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to be transported back to old-time Italy and the opera singers.
By Benjamin
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Tonio Treschi is the young son of an aging Venetian, the Grand Counsellor, he lives in his father's great palazzo with his young mother, not knowing other children to play with. But his real love is singing, and this he enjoys with his talented mother and his tutors. Guido Maffeo has no heritage, but is simply a young boy from a large and very poor family; he has known only hardship and ill treatment. That is until his beautiful voice, a voice which at a very young age will cost him his future manhood, takes him away from all this. He is taken to Naples and trained by the finest singing masters. The lives of Tonio and Guido will eventually becoming inextricably linked when Toni's father dies and his banished brother returns to claim his inheritance.
Cry to Heaven is a remarkable epic of love, betrayal and vengeance. Yet that is to put it far too simply, for the loves are complex, often unselfish but always beautiful; the betrayal is perhaps of the most shocking nature; the vengeance ultimately unsought.
Anne Rice writing with an assured hand plunges us into the flamboyant, luxurious and at times sordid world of eighteenth century Venice, Naples and Rome with an eye for detail that brings it all vividly to life. Her cast of characters is beautifully drawn, the handsome Tonio being especially appealing. Her careful research into the music and musical practices of the period lends the whole plausibility.
The result is a gripping, tale which at times luxuriates in the sheer pleasure of life, and others is drawn to the depths of despair. A tale where one act of barbarism may have even the reading needing time to come to terms with. It is a moving, at times heart-wrenching, story of triumph over adversity.
Cry to Heaven is a remarkable epic of love, betrayal and vengeance. Yet that is to put it far too simply, for the loves are complex, often unselfish but always beautiful; the betrayal is perhaps of the most shocking nature; the vengeance ultimately unsought.
Anne Rice writing with an assured hand plunges us into the flamboyant, luxurious and at times sordid world of eighteenth century Venice, Naples and Rome with an eye for detail that brings it all vividly to life. Her cast of characters is beautifully drawn, the handsome Tonio being especially appealing. Her careful research into the music and musical practices of the period lends the whole plausibility.
The result is a gripping, tale which at times luxuriates in the sheer pleasure of life, and others is drawn to the depths of despair. A tale where one act of barbarism may have even the reading needing time to come to terms with. It is a moving, at times heart-wrenching, story of triumph over adversity.
By Benjamin
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
Tonio Treschi is the young son of an aging Venetian, the Grand Counsellor, he lives in his father's great palazzo with his young mother, not knowing other children to play with. But his real love is singing, and this he enjoys with his talented mother and his tutors. Guido Maffeo has no heritage, but is simply a young boy from a large and very poor family; he has known only hardship and ill treatment. That is until his beautiful voice, a voice which at a very young age will cost him his future manhood, takes him away from all this. He is taken to Naples and trained by the finest singing masters. The lives of Tonio and Guido will eventually becoming inextricably linked when Toni's father dies and his banished brother returns to claims his inheritance.
Cry to Heaven is a remarkable epic of love, betrayal and vengeance. Yet that is to put it far too simply, for the loves are complex, often unselfish but always beautiful; the betrayal is perhaps of the most shocking nature; the vengeance ultimately unsought.
Anne Rice writing with an assured hand plunges us into the flamboyant, luxurious and at times sordid world of eighteenth century Venice, Naples and Rome with an eye for detail that brings it all vividly to life. Her cast of characters is beautifully drawn, the handsome Tonio being especially appealing. Her careful research into the music and musical practices of the period lends the whole plausibility.
The result is a gripping, tale which at times luxuriates in the sheer pleasure of life, and others is drawn to the depths of despair. A tale where one act of barbarism may have even the reading needing time to come to terms with. It is a moving, at times heart-wrenching, story of triumph over adversity.
Cry to Heaven is a remarkable epic of love, betrayal and vengeance. Yet that is to put it far too simply, for the loves are complex, often unselfish but always beautiful; the betrayal is perhaps of the most shocking nature; the vengeance ultimately unsought.
Anne Rice writing with an assured hand plunges us into the flamboyant, luxurious and at times sordid world of eighteenth century Venice, Naples and Rome with an eye for detail that brings it all vividly to life. Her cast of characters is beautifully drawn, the handsome Tonio being especially appealing. Her careful research into the music and musical practices of the period lends the whole plausibility.
The result is a gripping, tale which at times luxuriates in the sheer pleasure of life, and others is drawn to the depths of despair. A tale where one act of barbarism may have even the reading needing time to come to terms with. It is a moving, at times heart-wrenching, story of triumph over adversity.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Tiresome, rescued only by some skilful music history inclusions.
To be quite candid, I thought this book was homosexual/bisexual soft-porn, given a thin veil of respectability by throwing in relatively well-researched references to music and... Read more
Published on 24 July 2006 by Amanda
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but not great
Like many others, I turned to this book after reading Rice's more famous Vampire Chronicles. Becoming a little disillusioned with the later novels (and some of the earlier ones) I... Read more
Published on 15 May 2006 by Miss H. L. Matthews
4.0 out of 5 stars
breath taking, amazing and in a world of its own.
anne rice's beautiful prose always amazes me, this one more than most, the thoroughness of her research shows thoughout all of her works and the descriptions, ending and wonerful... Read more
Published on 26 Mar 2001
3.0 out of 5 stars
Neither too boring nor interesting enough
I am a great fan of Anne Rice, and absolutely adore the Vampire Chronicles and the Mayfair Witches series, but I think this book doesn't grip you the same way others do. Read more
Published on 10 Jan 2001
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