Leonardo's Swans: A Novel | Karen Essex | HISTORICAL FICTION AT ITS FINEST MAKES GREAT LISTENING

Leonardo's Swans: A Novel | Karen Essex | Riveting read

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Leonardo's Swans: ...

	Leonardo's Swans: A Novel Karen Essex Broadway, 2007 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 44 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

HISTORICAL FICTION AT ITS FINEST MAKES GREAT LISTENING

Historical fiction at its finest aptly describes "Leonardo's Swans," which is rich in period detail and court intrigue. A voice performance at its finest is also an appropriate description of Elizabeth Sartre's narration. She brings alive the longings and loves of two sisters in Renaissance Italy.

Ferrara is home to Isabella and Beatrice. They're close together in age but miles apart in personality. "Beatrice is a puzzle to Isabella, a fact that the older sister blames on the girl's unsupervised upbringing in wild Naples."

Isabella is engaged to Francesco, while the younger Beatrice will wed Ludovico, the future Duke of Milan. These marriages had been arranged when the girls were 5 and 6 years of age. It little mattered at the time which girl would be wed to which man as long as the match was beneficial for the city-state of Ferrara.

In later life the girls will be rivals as Isabella catches the eye of Ludovico, a man lacking in morals with a beautiful mistress, to say nothing of being her brother-in-law. He may have met his match in the ambitious Isabella who would use him so that his court painter, Leonardo da Vinci, might capture her image in oils.

These maneuverinsg are set against the plotting of France's rulers to invade Italy. Essex depicts the Renaissance with all its ribaldry and rivalry - wonderful listening!

- Gail Cooke

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Riveting read

Since the beginning of recorded history, and undoubtedly prior to that, sex and politics have always been intertwined. Throw art, the quest for fame and immortality, and sibling rivalry into the mix, and you have the ingredients of Leonardo's Swans, a novel about the intense and treacherous court of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, the patron under whom Leonardo da Vinci created most of his important works. The story is mainly about two aristocratic sisters, Beatrice and Isabella d'Este, the latter of whom became the major art collector of her day. Beatrice married the Duke of Milan, but Isabella always felt that Beatrice had stolen her fate. To compensate, Isabella was determined to have herself immortalized in oil by the great Leonardo da Vinci. But Beatrice, who was aware that Isabella had designs on her husband too, had other plans for her sister. This is a rivalry literally to the death between two women who basically love each other, but who have been pitted against each other by their own need for the attentions of the most powerful men in the courts of Europe and by the political ambitions of their husbands and father. Leonardo da Vinci is the prize at the end of their quest, but the artist proves to be even more elusive than power itself. This is a pretty wild ride of a story, but at the end, in the author's notes, you find out that it's all true! The characters in the book really are the women in Leonardo's paintings. The notes at the end even tell you where to go to see the originals.

By the way, I am an architect, and I really enjoyed the detailed and accurate descriptions of the churches, palaces, and monuments of the period. I've always felt that Milan's historic architecture has taken a back seat to Florence for far too long.

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Enthralling Piece of Historical Fiction

A fabulous book. Set in Renaissance Italy, the story begins as the elder daughter of the Duke d'Ercole, Isabelle marries the Duke of Mantua. Acknowledged as the more accomplished of the two daughters, Isabelle realizes her less attractive and less mature sister Beatrice has made a better marriage when Beatrice exchanges vows with the powerful Duke of Milan. Within the course of a few years, both sisters battle the disappointment of troubled marriages and the turbulence of Renaissance Italy.

Prior to this book, I hadn't read anything by Karen Essex, but I will certainly seek out her other books. Her development of Isabelle and Beatrice was so nicely done. I loved how Beatrice transformed from a naïve teenager to an intelligent and powerful matriarch. Isabelle changed in a different way: She always had the ingredients to be successful, but because she never quite got what she wanted, she became a more accepting and gracious person.

I found myself flying through this book because I couldn't get enough. A second reading allowed me to aborb all the delicious details that Essex meticulously researched.

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The Real da Vinci

I don't normally read historical fiction. I prefer to learn about the past from historical sources and well-researched biography. However, someone gave me Karen Essex' book Kleopatra, which was extremely vivid and intelligent, plus, TIME Magazine recommended this one, so I thought I'd give it a try. Leonardo's Swans is a rich tale of da Vinci's years in Milan as told through the points of view of the bold and brilliant Este sisters. It's a beautifully written portrait of the Renaissance as well as a unique, behind-the scenes investigation of the creation of Leonardo's most important paintings like "The Last Supper" and "The Virgin of the Rocks." The two sisters, rivaling for power, fame, and immortality, on a dangerous chessboard where the stakes are life and death, are unforgettable. The excerpts from Leonardo's notebooks, plus the fun scenes in which he frustrates his patrons by refusing to finish any of their "vanity projects" present a heretofore untold picture of the artist not as a great icon, or as a mystery wrapped in an enigma, but as a man. Full of fascinating facts and great descriptive language, I enjoyed this book on many levels.

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Wonderful!

A well woven web of romance, history, and drama. Incredibly rich characterizations and attention to historical detail make Leonardo's Swans a must read. Highly reccommended.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, page 8, 9

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