Blood and Beauty: A Novel About the Borgias [Sarah Dunant] on * FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF. As an acclaimed author of Italian historical novels, it was only a matter of time until Sarah Dunant turned her attention to the notorious Borgia. In her evocation of this scene in “Blood and Beauty,” her novel about the notorious Borgias, Sarah Dunant sends papal guards rushing to save.

Where is the actual character development so the reader actually becomes invested in the character and their journey? We are experiencing technical difficulties. LitFlash The eBooks you want beauyy the lowest prices.

It encompasses the names many readers know well, first and foremost the ruthlessly ambitious Spanish-born Rodrigo Borgia Pope Alexander VIpatriarch not only to his beloved illegitimate children but to Catholic believers worldwide.

I see many people loved it, but it was not for me. Start reading Blood and Beauty: If the Borgias are to triumph, this charismatic, consummate politician with a huge appetite for life, women, and power must use papacy and family—in particular, his eldest son, Cesare, and his daughter Lucrezia—in order to succeed. I didn’t mind her portrayal of Alfonso of Aragon or Pedro Calderon but was not a fan of how their storylines were handled; the root problem is, again, Dunant’s characterization of Lucrezia.

Blood & Beauty: Sarah Dunant: : Books

And oh, what a horror! I would be absolutely open to picking up the next book. You might try Sins of the House of Borgiabut be warned, it’s pretty awful. I got used to it after a spell - well, more of a tolerant contempt - but I never thought it had much of a point. It seems that Dunant wanted to reverse the damage done by centuries of slander so badly that she tamed and declawed him - both of them, actually. Also by Sarah Dunant. The description is compelling.

View all 3 comments. LitFlash The eBooks you want at the lowest prices. The quicker pace of storytelling sometimes felt a little rushed, but a book full of long drawn out scenes would be tedious so I think the book balances out well.

Blood and Beauty Reader’s Guide

Product details Paperback Publisher: I will give a few examples. I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. I give Dunant full marks for not getting bogged down in trashing Lucrezia’s reputation. I was glad, then, that she and her brother Cesare are the main characters in the book. The Borgias have never been so human, and so humanely portrayed.

The agony, the shame and the public disfigurement. And I’m happy that it is being done in two separate books, because it is a big topic. beuaty

Review: Blood and Beauty, Sarah Dunant – Girl with her Head in a Book

He is not an Italian, like so many who have come before him, but a native of Spain. This post contains affiliate links which you can use to purchase the book.

Amazon Rapids Fun stories for kids on the go. With their rise in power came rumour, scandal, violence beautyy corruption. My review for another novel about the Borgia Family: Be well written, get the characterizations right looking at you, Tom Fontana’s Borgiaand I’ll pretty much buy what you’re selling.

It’s funny how our moods are. Skip to content Girl with her Head in a Book Life is short. The problems seeded in the bloo year are blossoming into crises at every turn, as Italy explodes into war against the invading French.

Discover Prime Book Box for Kids. Everything I want to say about human behavior, sexuality, power, politics, and the endless emotional complexity of being alive—all of it can be said through the past. Among a broad cast of characters, delineated with a satisfyingly firm hand, are the great paterfamilias Alexander, Falstaffian, uxorious, charming and ruthless; the sinister master of ceremonies, Johannes Burchardt; and the handsome, vicious Cesare, who matures marvellously from a rake decked out in the latest fashions to a savage melancholic, mired in violence and dressed in black.

That same historical research gets in the way of story, and large swathes of the book read as the straight listing of historical events.

This novel will be most rewarding for those with a keen taste for history and a willingness to stick with a lengthy story with no real heroes but plenty of fascinating and really bad behavior.

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Blood and Beauty by Sarah Dunant – review

This didn’t bother me any, I’ll take the Borgia tale in any form, especially one well written and with all my favorites well represented. But all of her choices made sense for her characters and indeed are in line with historian theories. Cesare, with a dazzlingly cold intelligence and an even colder soul, is his greatest—though increasingly unstable—weapon.

I liked it but I didn’t love it and I expected to love it. In the epilogue, Sarah Dunant talks about writing a concluding volume to the Borgia saga and man, will I read that the second it becomes available. And while it’s true there is bezuty information at the back of the book that changed my view of Lucrezia — she was apparently a conscientious and dedicated administrator — I think too much detail would drag down what is now a very crisp and engaging story.

Author Sarah Dunant had commented that after researching this book for two years she didn’t contradict any known facts and where information was not clear took her best guess with the available dunatn material. May 20, Hailey rated it it was ok Shelves: So I’m no expert, but I have a clear knowledge and interest in the family and the time period.

I’m easy when it comes to Borgia historical fiction.