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The Birth of Venus: Love and Death in Florence
 
 
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The Birth of Venus: Love and Death in Florence (Paperback)

by Sarah Dunant (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Virago Press Ltd; New Ed edition (5 Feb 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1844080358
  • ISBN-13: 978-1844080359
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.4 x 3.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 8,103 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #2 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > D > Dunant, Sarah
    #4 in  Books > Fiction > World > Italian

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

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 Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.



Review

'No one should visit Tuscany this summer without this book. It is richly textured, and driven by a thrillerish fever' TIMES ' Dunant makes the art and philosophy of the period look new and dangerous again' IND ON SUN 'A beautiful serpent of a book, seductive dangerous and full of wise guile. Dunant's snaky tale of art, sex and Florentine hysteria, consumes utterly - but the experience is all pleasure.' Simon Schama
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Customer Reviews

30 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (30 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "I fell in love; deeply, profoundly and irrevocably.", 21 Feb 2004
By M. J Leonard "MikeonAlpha" (Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Art, history, politics, sex, lust, and love are all combined in this truly engaging story set in the city of Florence in the 1490's. The Catholic Church is fighting for supremacy, as a world of fundamentalist Christian doctrine is bought to life. And Durant does a fine job of recreating this rich and provocative period in European history, as she deftly and powerfully brings to life the desires, fears and hopes of Alessandra Cecchi, the young protagonist of the story. Through a complex, yet common sense first person narrative Durant creates a world steeped in rich historical drama and tragedy, as the lies, hypocrisy, betrayals and family loyalties of the Cecchi family are laid bare.

The focus of this masterful first person narrative is the young, headstrong and willful Alessandra who, not quite fifteen becomes intoxicated with a young painter's abilities, when his father commissions him to paint the chapel walls of their Florentine palazzo. For Alessandra her teenage freedom is threatened when her parents arrange to marry her to a wealthy, much older man who is having a clandestine affair with another member of the family. The family struggles are played out against the backdrop of civil unrest between the followers of the fundamentalist monk Savonarola and those of the Medici family, with their love of comfort, sumptuousness, art and sculpture.

Part historical treatise and part love story, The Birth of Venus is packed with religious and visual symbolism, as Durant effortlessly describes a truly extraordinary period in history. The strength of the narrative is in the recreation of the sights, sounds and smells of the period: From the bloody details of Alessandra's pregnancy, to the gory descriptions of the plague, and from the explicit sex scenes of Alessandra's virginal wedding night, to the beautiful descriptions of the paintings of the time. The choices one makes in life and the conflicts between faith, and basic human need are at the center of this fine novel. We see this reflected in Alessandra, as she grows and matures and meets many dire challenges. This is a gorgeous novel and is highly recommended.

Michael

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32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Sumptuous tale of renaissance Florence, 9 May 2004
By Anonymous (London, UK) - See all my reviews
Sarah Dunant weaves a tapestry as rich and as the cloths of Alessandra Cecchi's merchant father's, in her book about late fifteenth century Florence. This is the uplifting story of the indomitable spirit of a talented and fiercely intelligent young woman, and how her spirit finds a way in a repressive religious and masculine world. It is reminiscent of "Girl with a Perl Earring" in its ability to evoke the texture, smells, sights and sounds of a city and a culture of five centuries ago. The story is riveting, the characters deep, multifaceted and engaging. This is a first class read. Sarah Dunant has created a beautiful, soaring spirit in Alessandra, a woman who will stay with you long after you've finished the book. Ms Dunant has also managed to create some of the most beautiful passages of physical intimacy I've read. Compelling, hauntingly beautiful, a must read!
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Read, 18 Feb 2006
I have just finished this book and every page took my breath away. You are left at the end of every chapter guessing what will happen next, and I was often surprised at the outcome. It is a whirlwind novel and all credit should go to the author. I fell in love with the main character Alessandra and together we explored Florence and it's people at first with naivity then with the utmost confidence. This is a must for everyone!!!
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