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Sarah Dunant's gorgeous and mesmerizing novel, Birth of Venus, draws readers into a turbulent 15th-century Florence, a time when the lavish city, steeped in years of Medici family luxury, is suddenly besieged by plague, threat of invasion, and the righteous wrath of a fundamentalist monk. Dunant masterfully blends fact and fiction, seamlessly interweaving Florentine history with the coming-of-age story of a spirited 14-year-old girl. As Florence struggles in Savonarola's grip, a serial killer stalks the streets, the French invaders creep closer, and young Alessandra Cecchi must surrender her "childish" dreams and navigate her way into womanhood. Readers are quickly seduced by the simplicity of her unconventional passions that are more artistic than domestic:
Dancing is one of the many things I should be good at that I am not. Unlike my sister. Plautilla can move across the floor like water and sing a stave of music like a song bird, while I, who can translate both Latin and Greek faster than she or my brothers can read it, have club feet on the dance floor and a voice like a crow. Though I swear if I were to paint the scale I could do it in a flash: shining gold leaf for the top notes falling through ochres and reds into hot purple and deepest blue.
Alessandra's story, though central, is only one part of this multi-faceted and complex historical novel. Dunant paints a fascinating array of women onto her dark canvas, each representing the various fates of early Renaissance women: Alessandra's lovely (if simple) sister Plautilla is interested only in marrying rich and presiding over a household; the brave Erila, Alessandra's North African servant (and willing accomplice) has such a frank understanding of the limitations of her sex that she often escapes them; and Signora Cecchi, Alessandra's beautiful but weary mother tries to encourage yet temper the passions of her wayward daughter.
A luminous and lush novel, The Birth of Venus, at its heart, is a mysterious and sensual story with razor-sharp teeth. Like Alessandra, Dunant has a painter's eye--her writing is rich and evocative, luxuriating in colors and textures of the city, the people, and the art of 15th-century Florence. Reminiscent of Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring, but with sensual splashes of color and the occasional thrill of fear, Dunant's novel is both exciting and enchanting. --Daphne Durham
Book Description
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.
From the Hardcover edition.
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¿Simply amazing, so brilliantly written...almost intolerably exciting at times, and at others, equally poignant.¿
¿Antonia Fraser
¿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. Dunant¿s snaky tale of art, sex and Florentine hysteria consumes utterly¿but the experience is all pleasure.¿
¿Simon Schama
¿Sarah 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. The Birth of Venus is a tour de force.¿
¿Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire
¿Dunant has created a vivid and compellingly believable picture of Renaissance Florence: the squalor and brutality; the confidence and vitality; the political machinations. Her research has obviously been meticulous....A magnificent novel.¿
¿The Telegraph (London)
¿It¿s to Dunant¿s credit that the vast quantities of historical information in this book are deployed so naturally and lightly....On the simplest level, this is an erotic and gripping thriller, but its intellectual excitement also comes from the way Dunant makes the art and philosophy of the period look new and dangerous again....Theology has rarely looked so sexy.¿
¿The Independent (London)
¿No one should visit Tuscany this summer without this book. It is richly textured and driven by a thrillerish fever.¿
¿The Times (London)
¿[Dunant¿s] control, pace, and instinct are well-nigh impeccable.¿
¿The Financial Times
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
A Different Kind of History.......2007-10-26
The Birth of Venus was by far not what I expected. Yes, it was typical of the period but had enough twists and turns to keep me interested.
The story is of Alessandra, a teenage girl living in 1490s Florence, Italy. She is stuck in a world where women are kept under wraps, just daughters to be married off to have babies. Alessandra is a very strong willed girl who sometimes doesn't know when to keep quite.
When her father brings back a painter from Northern Europe to paint the family chapel, Alessandra becomes obsessed with getting the painter's opinion. When he finally agrees to look at some of her painting, the French invade Florence and Alessandra is forced to decide between becoming a nun or being married to a man she barely knows. She chooses Christoforo, a much older man to marry. He holds power in the city, is a lover of art and ends up giving Alessandra the freedom she has wanted for so long.
The book moves on from there, but to say much more would spoil the impact. There are plenty of other interesting things about this novel. A crazed monk takes over the city through sermons preaching how God is a great and merciless being. A string of brutal murders occur. There's sodomy, art, scandal, religion, and above all else, defiance.
I was very impressed with Alessandra's character. A scared girl who wanted to be more than some old mans wife, and when she finally got the chance to become that so many obstacles stood in her way and she still over came them. It showed how real she was. How human she seamed to be.
All in all, I was very impressed with this book. Ms. Dunant did a fantastic job making this forgotten time period something worth reading about. Anyone wanting to read something with substance should really take a look at this novel.
Renaissance Florence.......2007-10-11
The Birth of Venus it the story of the Cecchi family, a well to do family living in Florence in the 15th Century. The father brings a painter to the house to paint the family chapel as a sign of their wealth. The youngest daughter Alexandra, also a painter, approaches the painter hoping he'll help her with her craft. Things start to fall apart in Florence, the power of the Medici family falls, the French are entering Florence and Savoranola is preaching against wealth and opulence. During this time Alexandra's simple life becomes increasingly complicated. The story is full of power, lust and intrigue.
This book was very very similar to I, Mona Lisa and if I had realized that I probably would have tried to space them out a little. While, both books were good, this book was written better, in a more natural style. Overall, I really enjoyed this book.
Overrated, Little to It.......2007-09-23
Overrated, especially the writing, which is ordinary and pedestrian, lacking in style. The heroine is a stock character--a young girl almost of marriageable age, awkward and thought unattractive, chafing at her limited female role in life. Learned in the classics and art, or so it is said, she passionately wants to paint the saints, but cannot get instruction as a woman. The classics barely enter her head in the book, only religion almost to the exclusion of everything else. I doubt people thought of nothing else even in an era where religion played a large role--here almost to a sleep-inducing point. The backdrop is Savonarola's sudden grip on Florence and his downfall, nothing else of much interest happens in the book. There is a brief limp romance, but the heroine is neither very interesting nor does she do very much. Lacking in personality, she sort of deserves to end up content as a nun after an unremarkable life. The Medicis are mentioned only as past rulers of Florence, so we don't really see them either. None of the glamour of Florence of the time really gets face time because as a woman she is not privy to it. The research appears good, however.
It was doing good and then.......2007-09-06
it just fell apart for me. *Spoilers***
Though most of the book is entertaining, but each night after set the book down I kept asking myself-what is this all about? True, what you think the book is about changes several times, by the time I reached part IV, I'm more than a little annoyed. While I can understand and appreciate the obvious dedication and research that went into creating this novel, I think I would have appreciated a little less painting lessons and more plot. What was the point of the serial killings? Sure murder is a big deal but not when it's going on during a mini-religious crusade and not when no one cared. I thought that Alessandra was going to turn into a mini-private eye and find out whether her "love" was indeed a murderer. Nope. At the age that Alessandra discovered the painter's graphic sketches, she was still very young and really bore no reaction to them. She wasn't afraid of him or anything. She was just willing to keep that information to herself. She didn't even attempt to tell anyone about the disturbing sketches. That seemed unrealistic to me, especially given her supposed innocence. I do like what the author created with Erila-sure she was a slave, but she had a little more demension than some poorly-executed Hattie McDaniel's rip off. And out of all the women, she was the most free. I was even disappointed in the thin romance. I could care less about Alessandra and the painter as a couple. I would have loved to explored the complexities of her marriage more. That held the most potential for emotional angst and drama. It could have been more juicy than what was presented. I don't like how we don't know what happened to her daughter or the painter at the end of the book and certainly didn't like Alessandra's last act. Why would would Erila help her with that? Heck, Erila was even older than her. Instead of Erila living with her, I think it would have been a full circle if in the end they live together again, but this time it's Erila's place and they were equals. Erila had a business. Why couldn't Alessandra pick up her father's work? Florence was flourishing again. The last fifty pages felt like the author had run out of things to talk about and was petering along just typing to her contracted word-count. Sex in the convent-heck. Why didn't she just leave with the man-if you're going to break vows to God anyway? Why hand over your child and then check out? I removed one star for the last act alone. Overall, it's just so-so.
Great .......2007-08-23
This was a beautiful book. So far Ms. Dunant has not let me down. Not only does she tell a marvelous story, you are learning along the way. I feel like I am in the room as the story is unfolding. Beautiful!
Average customer rating:
- Has history been tampered with?
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
- Very Interesting
|
History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
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Similar Items:
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ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Has history been tampered with?.......2007-10-23
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RAZQNMXM4M9CL Has history been tampered with? Yes, it has! Did events and eras such as the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Roman Empire , the Dark Ages, and the Renaissance, actually occur within a very different chronology from what we've been told? Yes, they certainly did!
The history of humankind is both drastically shorter and dramatically different than generally presumed.
Why is it so? On one hand, it was usual custom to justify the claims to title and land by age and ancestry, and on the other the court historians knew only too well how to please their masters. The so called universal classic world history is a pack of intricate lies for all events prior to the 16th century. World history as we learn it today was entirely fabricated in the 16th-18th centuries. It's likely that nobody told you before, but
there is not a single piece of firm written evidence or artefact that is reliably and independently dated prior to the 11th century.
Naturally, after what you've learned in school and university, you will not easily believe that the classical history of ancient Rome, Greece, Asia, Egypt, China, Japan, India, etc., is manifestly false.
You will point accusing finger to the pyramids in Egypt, to the Coliseum in Rome and Great Wall of China etc., and claim, aren't they really ancient, thousands of years ancient? Well, there is no valid scientific proof that they are older than 1000 years!
The oldest original written document that can be reliably dated belongs to the 11th century!
New research asserts that Homo sapiens invented writing (including hieroglyphics) only 1000 years ago. Once invented, writing skills were immediately and irreversibly put to the use of ruling powers and science.
The consensual chronology we live with was essentially crafted in the 16th century by the Jesuits.
The world history was compiled from contradictory mix of innumerable copies of ancient Latin and Greek manuscripts and other irrefutable proofs delivered by late mediaeval astronomers that were cemented by the authority of writings of the Church Fathers.
Early in life, we learn about ancient history. Children love the magical lessons of history - they are like fairy tales. Teachers recite breathtaking stories; very soon We learn by heart the names and deeds of brave warriors, wise philosophers, fabulous pharaohs, cunning high priests and greedy scribes.
We learn of gigantic pyramids and sinister castles, kings and queens, dukes and barons, powerful heroes and beautiful ladies, emaciated saints and low-life traitors.
Ancient history is based documents, manuscripts, printed books, paintings, monuments and artefacts - called primary sources.
The problem is that neither these ancient documents, nor events described therein can be irrefutably dated, moreover they contradict each other for the most part.
When a school textbook tells us that Genghis Khan in year X or Alexander in year Y, have each conquered half of the world, it means only that it is so said in some of the written sources.
There are no answers to simple questions:
When were these primary sources written?
Where and by whom were these sources found?
It is wrongly presumed that ancient and medieval chronicles, written by Genghis Khan's or Alexander the Great contemporaries and eyewitnesses, are readily available. Actually, only sources written hundreds or even thousands of years after the events are there, compiled mostly in the 16th 18th centuries, or even later.
As a rule, these sources suffered considerable multiple manipulations, falsifications and distortions by editing. At the same time,
innumerable originals of ancient documents under various pretexts were destroyed in Europe under various pretexts.
The names of persons and geographical sites often changed meaning and location during the course of the centuries.
Geographical locations became clearly defined on maps only with the advent of printing.
This made possible the circulation of identical copies of the same map for purposes of the military, navigation, education and governance tasks.
Historians from Oxford say: "hey, everybody knows that Julius Caesar lived in the first century B.C.
`Julius Caesar' statement is only a point of view as
there is simply no irrefutable documentary proof that Julius Caesar or any other great name of antiquity ever existed.
Better than that - extremely rare sources that can be reliably dated back to the 10th-14th centuries A D, do not show the polished picture of classical history.
They show a picture both contradictory and confusing.
All methods of dating of ancient sources and artefacts are erroneous:
Radio-carbon C14 method produces dating with exactitude of plus minus 1500 years, therefore it is too crude for dating of events in historical timeframe!
The Almagest tractate, which lies as corner stone contemporary chronology, compiled in the 2nd century A D by Ptolemy, the founding father of astronomy, contains astronomical data of 9th to 16th century!
The Bronze Age,that has supposedly began 5000 years ago. Bronze is made of 90% copper and 10% tin, but the technology for tin extraction dates back to 14th century A D!.
All eclipses contained in manuscripts, like Thucydides one, relating 'ancient' events have exclusively medieval dating. All horoscopes cut in stone or painted in Egyptian temples, like Dendera have exclusively early medieval dating solutions.
Not quite what you have learned in school? Open your eyes, and, you will find sufficient proof to reach step by step the inevitable conclusion that the classical chronology is false and therefore, that the history of ancient and medieval world universally accepted today, is also false. Have a fresh outlook on everything said or printed about "ancient" and "enigmatic" Roman, Greek and Egyptian, medieval as well as all other "lost and found" civilizations.
Antiquity and Dark Ages are phantoms invented in the 16th 18th and polished in 19th 20thcenturies. Human civilization is in fact barely 1000 years old!
This book will change your perception of History forever!
What if Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt were invented during Renaissance?
What if The Old Testament was a rendition of events of the Middle Ages?
What if Jesus Christ was born in 1053 and crucified in 1086 AD?
Sounds Unbelievable?
Not after you've read "History: Fiction or Science?" by Anatoly Fomenko, the genius mathematician.
Armed with astronomy and computers Anatoly Fomenko turns History into a rocket science.
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
Amazon.com
In an era when 50 percent of all teenage girls have sex by the age of 19, discourse about teenage female sexuality remains remarkably sparse. With the important and fascinating Venus in Blue Jeans, Nathalie Bartle and Susan Lieberman turn up the volume on this hushed discussion by chronicling the way mothers and their teenage daughters communicate about sex.
Bartle conducted comprehensive interviews with 23 pairs of adolescent girls and their mothers. The girls, some from an inner-city public school and some from a more affluent private school, vary widely in their economic, ethnic, and social backgrounds, and in their interest and participation in sexual activity. The mothers, though demographically distinct, share a strong concern--and confusion--about the best way to talk with their daughters about sex and the accompanying risks of pregnancy and disease. The portraits are vividly drawn and the conclusions are vital. Bartle and Lieberman stress that vague discussions about the birds and the bees are not enough, and offer many tactics to help girls grow up with a confident, secure sense of their own sexuality. The authors urge mothers to encourage abstinence-based education rather than abstinence-only education in order to teach their daughters to think of their sexuality and sexual desire as a natural part of womanhood, and to follow their daughters' lead while maintaining an ongoing dialogue about sex. The compassionate advice and practical strategies Venus in Blue Jeans sets forth will help mothers of adolescent girls sort through their own discomfort and reluctance surrounding this issue and support them in the effort to see their girls safely to womanhood. --Ericka Lutz
Book Description
For generations, mothers and daughters have struggled to say the right thing -- or have said nothing at all -- when the time has come to discuss sex. VENUS IN BLUE JEANS brings refreshing hope and guidance for every mother who has been undone by such questions as "Mom, what's French kissing" or "What's oral sex?" or who has agonized over her teenage daughter's newfound interest in boys. In this wise and radiant book, Nathalie Bartle tackles some of the toughest topics of sexual education: What do girls know about sex? When is the right time to begin talking with them about sex? How can mothers get the conversation right? Today's teenagers face enormous pressures to become sexually active; by age nineteen more than 50 percent of American girls have had intercourse. From billboards to cyberspace, society is awash in sexual images. Parents assume that teens possess abundant sexual knowledge, but information gleaned from the media or the teenage grapevine can be woefully inaccurate: many teens list AIDS as the only sexually transmitted disease; others assume they can't get pregnant "the first time." We need a new dialogue for this generation of young women, Bartle argues. Combining her own stories of raising a daughter with the generously honest voices of mothers and daughters who have struggled firsthand with this topic, she illuminates the invaluable role that mothers can play in their daughters' sexual education -- without encouraging them to be sexually active. Adolescent girls crave information, but they may be too afraid or embarrassed to ask for it, worried that their moms will think less of them or assume they are preparing for sex. The rich stories here help dispel common myths, encourage candid conversation, and reveal the importance of placing sexual information within the broader context of relationships and a moral framework. Filled with strategies, keen understanding, and a warm sense of humor, VENUS IN BLUE JEANS will inspire mothers and others to persevere with these vital conversations and will empower girls to think of their sexuality as a natural part of adolescence rather than something they need be defiant about or shamed by. This is an indispensable book for anyone concerned with guiding today's young women safely through the upsets, infatuations, and intimacies of adolescence.
Customer Reviews:
The only book that talks about how girls deal with sex today.......1998-06-12
This terrific book is filled with girls voices. From girls that any woman or mom would identify with to the girls you knew at school but didn't talk to. No other book I've read so clearly conveys what girls are thinking about and dealing with. It gives new parents like myself something to work towards as far as communication goes and something to hope for in raising healthy, safe girls. I've never understood adolescence--even when I was in it. I'll be facing it soon enough with two daughters and I'm so glad and relieved to have this smart, sensitive book give me a leg up.
Product Description
Art finally speaks for itself. Hysterical captions put to photos of famous art pieces from right out of the art piece's mouth (so to speak). Does The Thinker have a problem, What is the story behind the Leaning Tower and Venus - What was she doing rising nude out of that shell? Here at last are the answers to these and many other art puzzlers.
Average customer rating:
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Birth of Venus
Botticelli
Manufacturer: Shambhala
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0394526007
Release Date: 1983-01-12 |
Average customer rating:
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Birth of Venus
Sarah Dunant
Manufacturer: Books on Tape
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
ASIN: B000OL14P0 |
Average customer rating:
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The Birth of Venus
Sarah Dunant
Manufacturer: Little,Brown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Historical
| Genre Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0316726036 |
Books:
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- The Gnostic Gospels
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