I enjoyed more of the historical and less the fictional side of Sarah Dunant‘s historical fiction : “The Birth of Venus”. The history she writes about is of late 15th century Florence. I learned more of the Medici’s patronage and period, although I was somewhat familiar with it. What was totally new for me is the four year period between 1494 and 1498, when the city was under the influence of a purist priest by the name of Girolamo Savonarola. Under his rule the city’s population was forced to live a more puritan life. My favorite part of the book pertain to his rise, clash with the pope and eventually fall, but more importantly how his religious ideas and anti-corruption fight took a hold in the city. All of that was fascinating and better than fiction. Finally I know where the expression “bonfire of vanities” came from.
The book’s fiction contained too much coincidences and was too steamy for my prude taste. It follows the life Alessandra, from girlhood, through love with a painter and his art, through unsatisfying marriage, to becoming a nun for most of her life. She just happens to be related to the Medicis, she just happens to meet and fall in love in the era’s most famous artist as a young man, she just happens to be at the center of political events in the active phase of her life. That’s a bit too much of “happens to be” for a fictional character. I understand that for writing historical fictional it can be useful if the protagonist is close to the center of the well-known historical events. But for that type of book it is better to write about a real person. If you want to write a zeitgeist novel though it is better to focus on a fictional figure and concentrate the period’s characteristics on her life. Combining the two kinds of historical fiction rarely comes out as a coherent and authentic story.
Therefore I recommend the book for its depiction of history, but as a story it left me cold.