The Birth Of Venus
On sale
3rd January 2013
Price: £10.99
‘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 . . . consumes utterly – but the experience is all pleasure’ SIMON SCHAMA
‘She writes like a painter, and thinks like a philosopher . . . a tour de force of storytelling’ AMANDA FOREMAN
‘An erotic and gripping thriller . . . Theology has rarely looked so sexy’ INDEPEDENT
Alessandra is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back with him from northern Europe to decorate the walls of their family chapel in their Florentine palazzo. Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter’s abilities. As Medici Florence is threated by the hellfire of the monk Savonarola, the painter and his dazzling art exert an ever more powerful and erotic pull.
‘Dunant has created a vivid and compellingly believable picture of Renaissance Florence . . . A magnificent novel’ TELEGRAPH
‘This moving, gripping and impressive work is Dunant’s most beautifully achieved novel’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘[Dunant’s] control, pace, and instinct are well-nigh impeccable’ FINANCIAL TIMES
‘A beautiful serpent of a novel, seductive and dangerous . . . consumes utterly – but the experience is all pleasure’ SIMON SCHAMA
‘She writes like a painter, and thinks like a philosopher . . . a tour de force of storytelling’ AMANDA FOREMAN
‘An erotic and gripping thriller . . . Theology has rarely looked so sexy’ INDEPEDENT
Alessandra is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back with him from northern Europe to decorate the walls of their family chapel in their Florentine palazzo. Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter’s abilities. As Medici Florence is threated by the hellfire of the monk Savonarola, the painter and his dazzling art exert an ever more powerful and erotic pull.
‘Dunant has created a vivid and compellingly believable picture of Renaissance Florence . . . A magnificent novel’ TELEGRAPH
‘This moving, gripping and impressive work is Dunant’s most beautifully achieved novel’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘[Dunant’s] control, pace, and instinct are well-nigh impeccable’ FINANCIAL TIMES
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Reviews
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
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 of storytelling
This moving, gripping and impressive work is Dunant's most beautifully achieved novel . . . Working artistic motifs and subject matter into a compelling narrative, she weaves the big themes of love, sex, death and art into the everyday
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
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
Simply amazing, so brilliantly written . . . almost intolerably exciting at times, and at others, equally poignant
Dunant is in her historical element in Renaissance Florence . . . No one should visit Tuscany this summer without this book. It is richly textured and driven by a thrillerish fever
[Dunant's] control, pace, and instinct are well-nigh impeccable