The Birth of Venus

A Novel

Fiction & Literature, Literary, Historical, Romance
Cover of the book The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant, Random House Publishing Group
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Sarah Dunant ISBN: 9781588364425
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group Publication: November 30, 2004
Imprint: Random House Language: English
Author: Sarah Dunant
ISBN: 9781588364425
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Publication: November 30, 2004
Imprint: Random House
Language: English

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.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

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.

More books from Random House Publishing Group

Cover of the book The Lover by Sarah Dunant
Cover of the book The Seal Wife by Sarah Dunant
Cover of the book Too Darn Hot by Sarah Dunant
Cover of the book Minecraft: The End by Sarah Dunant
Cover of the book Comfort Me with Apples and Tender at the Bone: Two Culinary Treasures by Sarah Dunant
Cover of the book Precious by Sarah Dunant
Cover of the book The Gift by Sarah Dunant
Cover of the book Firestorm by Sarah Dunant
Cover of the book Courting Trouble by Sarah Dunant
Cover of the book Homes and Other Black Holes by Sarah Dunant
Cover of the book Assault at Selonia: Star Wars Legends (The Corellian Trilogy) by Sarah Dunant
Cover of the book The Big Beautiful by Sarah Dunant
Cover of the book Bitter Angels by Sarah Dunant
Cover of the book Splinter of the Mind's Eye: Star Wars Legends by Sarah Dunant
Cover of the book Elizabeth's Women by Sarah Dunant
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy