Blood And Beauty

by Sarah Dunant

On Sale: 07/16/2013

Blood And Beauty

by Sarah Dunant

On Sale: 07/16/2013

Format:

About the Book

A visceral, epic novel that challenges what we know about history’s most dynamic and maligned Renaissance family, the Borgias

Rooted in the energetic, brutal and corrupt world of 15th-century Italy, Blood and Beauty opens with Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia, clever and charismatic, buying his way to the Papal crown. In this he is not unusual. Neither is the fact that he has illegitimate children. What does mark him is his blood; he is a Spaniard in a country run by established Italian families. To thrive, even to survive, he must create his own dynasty using the papacy and his family as the building blocks of power. His son Cesare is his most brilliant pupil. Fearless and calculating (later immortalized in Machiavelli’s The Prince), he provides the driving energy and the muscle. The Pope’s daughter, Lucrezia, beloved by both men, is their marriage tool. Just twelve when the novel opens, she is to have one dynastic union annulled and a second—beloved—husband murdered by her own brother to make way for a third strategic marriage—all before the age of twenty. Hers is a journey from pawn to political player.

Using the high-wire tension of a political thriller, this portrait of power and its personal costs is the most thrilling family saga to come out of Italy since The Godfather. The Borgias emerge not as the poisoning sexual monsters of popular myth, but in all their ruthless determination and complex humanity.

Critical Praise

“Dunant transforms the blackhearted Borgias and the conniving courtiers and cardinals of Renaissance Europe into fully rounded characters, brimming with life and lust.” - New York Times Book Review

“Compelling female players have been a characteristic of Dunant’s earlier novels, and this new offering is no exception. . . . The members of this close-knit family emerge as dynamic characters, flawed but sympathetic, filled with fear and longing.” - Seattle Times

“Dazzling . . . a triumph on an epic scale . . . filled with rich detail and page-turning drama.” - BookPage

“The Machiavellian atmosphere-hedonism, lust, political intrigue-is magnetic. . . . Readers won’t want the era of Borgia rule to end.” - People

Resources

Product Details

  • ISBN: 9781443406444
  • ISBN 10: 1443406449
  • Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers
  • On Sale: 07/16/2013
  • Pages: 528
  • List Price:29.99 CAD
  • BISAC1 : FICTION / General

Blood And Beauty by Sarah Dunant

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