Synopsis

Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family’s Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter’s abilities.

But their burgeoning relationship is interrupted when Alessandra’s parents arrange her marriage to a wealthy, much older man. Meanwhile, Florence is changing, increasingly subject to the growing suppression imposed by the fundamentalist monk Savonarola, who is seizing religious and political control. Alessandra and her native city are caught between the Medici state, with its love of luxury, learning, and dazzling art, and the hellfire preaching and increasing violence of Savonarola’s reactionary followers. Played out against this turbulent backdrop, Alessandra’s married life is a misery, except for the surprising freedom it allows her to pursue her powerful attraction to the young painter and his art.

The Birth of Venus is a tour de force, the first historical novel from one of Britain’s most innovative writers of literary suspense. It brings alive the history of Florence at its most dramatic period, telling a compulsively absorbing story of love, art, religion, and power through the passionate voice of Alessandra, a heroine with the same vibrancy of spirit as her beloved city.

Review:
I just loved this tale. It was very captivating and intriguing. I learned a lot about Florence during the mid 1400s into the early 1500s. I also learned a bit about art and creating art during that time. Loved her Christian allegories. And the tale although quite fictional and unbelievable is based on historical accounts. I still enjoyed it even though I couldn’t completely believe it. It was also quite romantic and endearing in some parts. I didn’t know much about the tale going in so I don’t want to give it away. But you should be delighted by what you discover. I’d like to read certain passages over again. The writing style was medium difficulty. GRE words abound. hehe. The political intrigue was interesting to note too. And her marriage itself was straight out of a soap opera. hehe. Great book.

Tags: birth of venus, book review, books, sara dunant

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