Leonardo's Swans: A Novel | Karen Essex | Winner of the Premio Roma!

Leonardo's Swans: A Novel | Karen Essex | I couldn't stop reading!

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Leonardo's Swans: ...

	Leonardo's Swans: A Novel Karen Essex Broadway, 2007 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 41 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Isabelle d?Este, daughter of the Duke of Ferrara, born into privilege and the political and artistic turbulence of Renaissance Italy, is a stunning black-eyed blond and an art lover and collector. Worldly and ambitious, she has never envied her less attractive sister, the spirited but naïve Beatrice, until, by a quirk of fate, Beatrice is betrothed to the future Duke of Milan. Although he is more than twice their age, openly lives with his mistress, and is reputedly trying to eliminate the current duke by nefarious means, Ludovico Sforza is Isabella?s match in intellect and passion for all things of beauty. Only he would allow her to fulfill her destiny: to reign over one of the world?s most powerful and enlightened realms and be immortalized in oil by the genius Leonardo da Vinci. Isabella vows that she will not rest until she wins her true fate, and the two sisters compete for supremacy in the illustrious courts of Europe.

A haunting novel of rivalry, love, and betrayal that transports you back to Renaissance Italy, Leonardo?s Swans will have you dashing to the works of the great master?not for clues to a mystery but to contemplate the secrets of the human heart.

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Winner of the Premio Roma!

My girlfriend had to read this novel last spring for a class on the Lives of Artists. She liked it so much that we took it to Italy last fall and used it as a guidebook to all the locations featured in the book. We would never have gone to Ferrara or Mantova, much less have experienced them in the way that we were able to with the historical background the novel gave us. And if you are planning to go to Milan, then forget it, this is the book to read. Leonardo and the women he painted, as well as the politics and the culture of the Renaissance, are really brought into a kind of living color. Seeing The Last Supper after reading about how and why it was conceived and painted really added layers and layers of meaning to the experience. While we were there, we saw in a bookstore that Leonardo's Swans had won the Premio Roma for foreign fiction. Bravo! It deserved it.

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I couldn't stop reading!

This is a beautifully written book, reads and flows so easily it's almost as if you are right there seeing everything. The author is very talented and knows how to captivate and amaze.

Small flaws mar an excellent book

This historical novel has a lot to recommend it. The author writes very well; her historical research is thorough and presented in a non-pedantic way; the development of her characters is consistently interesting; her descriptions of works of art and architecture are accurate, well-informed and insightful.

But despite all these strong points, the books has some really annoying qualities. Why is Leonardo da Vinci called "the Magistro?" There's no such word in either Italian or Latin. Why not just call him "the master," or, if the author insists on using Italian, "il maestro?"

My personal preference is for linear writing, so I didn't care for the way the author went backward and forward in time, and sometimes used the present tense and other times the past tense in her prose.

And could someone please explain the mysterious "da Vinci code" embodied in the chapter titles? Each chapter title begins with a Roman numeral followed by an asterisk, but the numerals appear in no particular order. Chapter One has an "X," Chapter Three an "XV" and so on. What's this all about?

And finally, the title. The book is NOT about Leonardo's (or anybody's) swans; the birds play only a minor role, and the painting of "Leda and the Swan," is mentioned only briefly. Readers are entitled to think, from the title, that the book is principally about Leonardo da Vinci, which it isn't. Perhaps the author or publisher thought that getting Leonardo's famous name into the title would sell more books than the much lesser-known names of Isabella or Beatrice d'Este?

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Of Swans and Ugly Ducklings

I won't go into a description of the plot here, since so many other reviewers have done a great job of that. Instead, I'll tell you what I liked about the book.

1. The writing is well done
2. The storyline of two sisters, who sometimes act quite ugly to each other, is fascinating
3. I really enjoyed the small parts where Leonardo is featured (however, they are small)

This isn't too long of a book, so if you want something to read on a Saturday, or in a airport, I would pick this up, especially lovers of Italian culture and historical fiction.

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The Bookschlepper Recommends

It says something that Leonardo is a mere bit-player, despite the title. In 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci paints, sculpts, and designs weapons for Lodovico Sforza as the French initiate their takeover of northern Italy. Two of the four "swans" he paints, sisters Isabella d'Este and Beatrice d'Este, will become the Marchesa of Mantua and the Duchess of Milan. In those positions, they will patronize the arts, run city-states, set fashion, bear children and control, contrive and contribute to the Renaissance world. An average historical fiction novel for women but a solid introduction to the subjects; Essex has recreated two strong leading characters but given too much emphasis to their "thoughts". The choice made by Isabella, Marchesa, to patronize art and administer Mantua despite her husband is counter-pointed by Beatrice's decision to support her husband, Ludovico Sfora, through hell and high water highlights the decisions women are forced to make.

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