To anyone who has read about the Borgias or watched a movie on them, this book is going to be a surprise. Portrayed as murderers, masters of the poison tricks, immorality and anything else going this book portrays a different side of Lucrezia.
Lucrezia wanted love, family and children in that order. She was not allowed to get what she wanted due to the machinations of her brother and her father who used her as a pawn for their own ends. Unfortunately for Lucrezia, the ties that bound her to her brother and father were so tight and overwhelming that she was never able to break free from these bonds and seek or find a fresh life for herself. Whatever path she chose to take was always influenced by what the effect of it would be for her brother and father both of whom she adored.
Her lover was murdered, then the husband chosen for her was also murdered by her brother, her two children were taken away from her and then she was given in marriage to another whose family hated her and made her life as difficult as they could for her.
The portrayal of Lucrezia is at variance with other books on her. Her so called incestuous relationship with both her father and her brother, her skillful use of poison to get rid of those who alienated her and her ways of seduction are all absent from this book. We see her more the person sinned against than the sinner here.
A very different take on the Borgias.
Always interesting to read an imagined different side of a character, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI need to recommend this to my book club!
ReplyDeleteInteresting take on the Borgias. Sometimes, you wonder just how far off history really is.
ReplyDeleteI've got this one too bat haven't read it yet. I was just talking about this book on twitter with someone else who's reading it. Coincidence!
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