Bibliograph

The birth of Venus, a novel, Sarah Dunant

Type

Label

The birth of Venus, a novel, Sarah Dunant

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 396-397)

Index

no index present

Literary Form

fiction

Main title

The birth of Venus

Responsibility statement

Sarah Dunant

Sub title

a novel

Summary

Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter home to decorate the Florentine family's chapel. 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, caught between the Renaissance aspirations of the Medici state and the increasingly violent, reactionary followers of the fundamentalist monk Savonarola. Played out against this turbulent backdrop, Alessandra's married life is a misery, except for the surprising freedom it allows her to pursue her attraction to the young painter and his art

Target audience

adult

Creator