|
Volume CXXXIII, Number 8 |
 |
Passionate Italian love letters excite
DIANA HEALD
STAFF WRITER
When Andrea di Robilant's father brought home a box of aging, faded old letters from their family palazzo in Venice, no one could have imagined the great secret it contained.
The box was filled the love letters of di Robilant's ancestor, Andrea Memmo, and his illicit lover, Giustiniana Wynne. In A Venetian Affair, published in September, di Robilant collects Andrea and Giustiniana's letters and weaves their tale together with narration. Di Robilant's thorough and painstaking work brings what might seem like a stuffy historical account to life.
Giustiniana and Andrea's love affair is played out against the backdrop of opulent mid-eighteenth century Venice, just a few years before the fall of the Venetian Republic. This sense of decaying grandeur is pervasive throughout the novel, especially in contrast to Giustiniana and Andrea's unfailing hope.
At times it seems their love for each other is all the two have in common: Andrea is from a patrician Venetian family that can trace its ancestry back to the Roman Empire, while Giustiniana is a half-English Protestant whose lineage is shady at best and whose mother gave birth to an illegitimate child in secret a few years before Giustiniana was born. However, she is also one of the most beautiful young women in Venice, wining her many admirers including Andrea, as well as Casanova himself.
The two meet at a party and flirt with each other at the city's balls and casinos and meet at friends' palazzos to spend private time together. However, as the two lovers realize their families will never approve, they are forced to be increasingly secretive about their relationship. When Mrs. Wynne discovers them, she takes Giustiniana and her sisters to Paris and London, creating scandals along the way and nearly breaking Giustiniana's heart in the process, while Andrea stays in Venice learning to become a cultured, upper-class statesman.
Overall, A Venetian Affair is a very compelling read. The letters bring the love story to life in a way that no novel could by allowing the reader to experience the thoughts and feelings of real people, and di Robilant's narration is fast-paced and interesting. His style is clear and concise, yet the language is so vivid that it brings the plot to life.
The book portrays Venice at the height of its prestige, power, and grandeur, proving to anyone who might have thought otherwise that the Venetian Republic was anything but boring.
|
FastCounter by bCentral |