The Birth of Venus is a tour de force, the first historical novel from one of Britain's most innovative writers of literary suspense. 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. 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.

Meanwhile, Florence is changing, increasingly subject to the growing suppression imposed by the fundamentalist monk Savonarola, who is seizing religious and political control.

A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter's abilities.īut their burgeoning relationship is interrupted when Alessandra's parents arrange her marriage to a wealthy, much older man. “A broad mural bursting with color, passion, and intrigue.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 broad mural bursting with color, passion, and intrigue.”- People almost intolerably exciting at times, and at others, equally poignant.”-Antonia Fraser As the city shudders with violence and change, Alessandra must find her own way-and finally explore the passions she’s kept so long at bay. Meanwhile, the reign of the Medicis, with their love of luxury, learning, and dazzling art, is being threatened by the hellfire preaching and increasing brutality of the fundamentalist monk Savonarola and his reactionary followers.

A child of the Renaissance with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the artist’s abilities.īut Alessandra’s parents have made plans for their daughter, and she is soon married off to a wealthy, much older man. There is also Random House Reader’s Circle bonus content, which is sure to inspire discussion at book clubs everywhere.Īlessandra 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 Florence palazzo. Access them as you read the novel or as supplemental material after finishing the entire story. You can access the eBook annotations with a simple click or tap on your eReader via the convenient links. This new deluxe eBook edition features more than eighty additional pages of exclusive, author-approved annotations throughout the text, which contain new illustrations and photographs, to enrich your reading experience.

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant