Blood & Beauty

Is it possible to make the Borgias boring?  I was beginning to think so as I read Sarah Dunant's latest novel Blood & Beauty (#333).  I had been so looking forward to reading this book after devouring her previous books set in Renaissance Italy.  Sacred Hearts was so vivid and memorable in its depiction of women's lives in that time period that I was expecting her to similarly illuminate the life of Lucrezia in Blood & Beauty.  For me, it just didn't happen. 

It's a sturdy, well researched and straight-forward telling of the history of the Borgia clan from the time that Rodrigo is elected as that rare thing, a non-Italian pope until Lucrezia's third marriage.  But for me, it was essentially lifeless.  In the first half of this five hundred page novel, the most compellingly portrayed character was Giulia Farnese's hair! (She was the girl married to his nephew as a beard for the Pope's affair with her.)  Things did pick up a bit in the second half of the book, but the focus was really on the male characters, not Lucrezia, as I had hoped.  In fact, in many ways, Lucrezia comes across in this story as a victim.  Bright, but still merely a chess piece in the game her father, the Pope, and her brother, Cesare, were manipulating to enhance their own power and political prestige.

According to Ms. Dunant's notes at the end of this volume, she does plan to continue the family saga in further volumes.  Perhaps Lucrezia will be allowed more time on the stage in future books, but the question is, will I be willing to wade through it to find out, or should I just cut my losses and stick to non-fiction like The Tigress of Forli about Caterina Sforza, a remarkable woman who does play a role in Blood & Beauty?

If you haven't previously read any of Sarah Dunant's books, you can read Blood & Beauty without any expectations.  Then go back and read any of her other books, especially In the Company of a Courtesan, The Birth of Venus, or my personal favorite, Sacred Hearts.  Then you'll understand why I found this book so disappointing.