The Birth of Venus (36 page)

Praise for
THE BIRTH OF VENUS

“Smart and engaging . . . The pages are filled not only with long and lovingly detailed descriptions of works of art, but also with vivid images. . . . Dunant does a remarkable job evoking Florence.”

—The Washington Post Book World

“Sarah Dunant credibly re-creates a past world and evokes a young woman’s passion for its art. . . . The plot is full of twists. . . . The biggest surprise for a reader of latter-day fiction is a heroine who, rather than wither under the constraints of patriarchal society, manages to thrive within it.”

—The Wall Street Journal

“A broad mural bursting with color, passion and intrigue . . . Sixteenth-century Florence may have been long ago and far away, but as Dunant adroitly demonstrates, its political and religious turmoil . . . have eerie parallels in the present day.”

—People

“Alessandra Cecchi begins her recollections in the year 1492. . . . Her city is the center of an explosion of artistic enterprise. . . . Historically, this is a fascinating moment. . . . Alessandra narrates her life story with an eye to the telling detail.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“Dunant has given us a story of sacrifice and betrayal, set during Florence’s captivity under the fanatic Savonarola. She writes like a painter, and thinks like a philosopher: juxtapositioning the humane against the animal, hope against fanaticism, creativity against destruction.”

—Amanda Foreman, author of
Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire

“A beautiful serpent of a novel, seductive and dangerous . . . full of wise guile, the most brilliant novel yet from a writer of powerful historical imagination and wicked literary gifts.”

—Simon Schama

“A beguiling story.”

—Time

“Dunant blends the historical—the artistic ferment of the Italian Renaissance, the constricted roles allotted to women and gays, the central position of religion in people’s lives—with Alessandra’s personal story. . . . An evocation of a distant past with powerful implications for the present,
The Birth of Venus
offers the reader a genuine labor of love.”

—USA Today

“From its first arresting sentence, this rich historical novel set in Renaissance Italy compels us. . . . We are thus hooked, within a few seductively well-written pages, by Sarah Dunant, a skilled storyteller who spins out her almost operatic tale. . . . Vividly described . . . the novel takes on the taut pace of a thriller. . . . Based on historical research that informs without being intrusive . . . this novel satisfies on many levels.”

—
Baltimore
Sun

“Smart and engaging . . . Dunant has injected a kind of
realpolitik
into the genre, making it far more poignant and interesting.”

—Chicago Sun-Times

“A juicy, entertaining historical novel with a well set-up plot, lively and surprising characters and a lot of information about the colorful place—Renaissance Florence—in which it’s set. What makes
The Birth of Venus
work is Dunant’s skill at bringing characters to life. . . . A smart and satisfying read.”

—San Jose Mercury News

2004 Random House Trade Paperback Edition

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2003 by Sarah Dunant

Reader’s Guide copyright © 2004 by Random House, Inc.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House Trade Paperbacks, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

R
ANDOM
H
OUSE
T
RADE
P
APERBACKS
and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

This work was originally published in hardcover in Great Britain by Little, Brown, an imprint of Time Warner Books UK, in 2003, and in the United States by Random House, a division of Random House, Inc., in 2004.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Dunant, Sarah.

The birth of Venus : a novel / Sarah Dunant.

p.                                    cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

1. Florence (Italy)—History—1421–1737—Fiction.                   2.         Savonarola, Girolamo, 1452–1498—Fiction.                  3.         Arranged marriage—Fiction.                  4.         Women painters—Fiction.                   5.         Married women—Fiction.                  6.         Teenage girls—Fiction.                  7.         Painters—Fiction.                  I.         Title.

PR6054.U45756B58                                    2004

823'.914—dc21                  2003046932

Random House website address:
www.atrandom.com

eISBN: 978-1-58836-442-5

v3.0