The Birth of Venus
Registered by 
crimson-tide
of Balingup, Western Australia Australia on 3/11/2012
This book is in a Controlled Release!
crimson-tide of Balingup, Western Australia Australia on 3/11/2012 This book is in a Controlled Release!
2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by crimson-tide from Balingup, Western Australia Australia on Sunday, March 11, 2012
crimson-tide from Balingup, Western Australia Australia on Sunday, March 11, 2012
Duplicate copy.
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
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
Reserved for the OZ VBB.
Edit 15th July 2012: Chosen from the box by tantan.
Edit 15th July 2012: Chosen from the box by tantan.
Released 11 yrs ago (7/16/2012 UTC) at Balingup, Western Australia Australia
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Posting off to tantan in Queensland as a choice from the OZ VBB.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Received today - thanks crimson-tide!
This was good enough to keep me reading, but not great enough to keep me coming back to it regularly. There were a lot of people and places to keep track of, and I got a bit lost at times because I wasn't reading regularly. An interesting story nonetheless, and a time in history that I'd like to read more about.
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I will offer this up on the Oz VBB.
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I will offer this up on the Oz VBB.
At the mail boxes.
