Product Description

“A fascinating story, rich in detail. In every case, Faunce portrays [Lucrezia] believably, with wit and sensitivity.”--Library Journal

Hundreds of years after her death, Lucrezia Borgia remains one of the most enigmatic and notorious women of history, accused of incest, of poisoning her rivals, and even of murdering her own father. Born into scandal, she was the daughter of the treacherous Cardinal Roderigo Borgia, who would later be crowned Pope Alexander VI. When her father ascended the papal throne, young Lucrezia’s life changed forever. From then on, Lucrezia would be unable to escape the political ambitions of her father and her brother, the bloodthirsty Cesare Borgia.

In an era when the Vatican was as decadent and violent as any royal court, Lucrezia was its crown princess. Famed for her beauty, she was a valuable pawn in the marriage game, and Alexander VI would use her to create one alliance after another. When her kindly first husband no longer suited the Pope’s needs, Lucrezia’s virginity was restored by papal decree (her new maidenhood was declared “miraculous”), and she was married off again, this time to a man she truly loved, Alfonso, Prince of Naples. But her joy was short-lived. Alfonso loathed her brother and refused to participate in the Pope’s imperial schemes, which threatened to tear apart the Vatican’s political alliances--and Lucrezia’s happy marriage.

In this unforgettable debut, John Faunce perfectly captures the rotten decadence of the Borgias’ papal court and the inner steel of Lucrezia Borgia, one of history’s great survivors.

“Fascinating...a searing portrait of an intelligent woman, cunning enough to shape her own bizarre destiny.”--Booklist

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1365301 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-23
• Released on: 2004-03-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Her contemporaries painted her as an incestuous, conspiring villainess. History has deemed her a hapless political pawn. Now screenwriter and first-time novelist Faunce allows Borgia to speak for herself in this extravagant first-person narrative of Borgia's life in late 15th-century Italy. The child of Pope Alexander VI and a former whore, Borgia is separated from her mother at an early age and raised in the Vatican by her imperious, corrupt father. Her arranged marriage to Count Giovanni Sforza ends abruptly as Giovanni flees Rome for his life (a victim of the pope's ruthless political maneuvers) just as her love for him begins to blossom. With her virginity declared "miraculously" intact, Lucrezia is forced to marry again, this time to one of Italy's richest heirs. As her brother Cesare and the Borgia family name gain political influence, Lucrezia comes to fear her sibling, all the more so after she and her husband, Alphonso, are viciously attacked by assassins in Cesare's employ. Cesare's subsequent actions incite her to even the score. Faunce gives Borgia the voice of a bitchy but self-possessed modern teenager ("What was I thinking? The hell with Cesare. The hell with my impotently sentimental, girly tears, self-pity and dramatization"), which has the stylishly funny appeal of a show on the WB network. It's not as effective, however, for anchoring a historical epic; the political intrigue and scandals tend to run together, narrated in the same relentless pitch of high drama. By the novel's end, when Borgia is in self-imposed exile in a convent, readers may feel like they could use a rest as well.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Narrated by Lucrezia herself, this novelization of the life of one of history's most notorious females is a page-turning expose of the corruption, debauchery, and intrigue that characterized the sixteenth-century papal court. The illegitimate daughter of Roderigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI, Lucrezia was raised amid luxury and deception. Viewed as a pawn by her ambitious father and brothers, she was married off twice in efforts to gain political advantage and alliances. Of course, Lucrezia was not a naively innocent victim; she, too, had her own agenda and was not afraid to risk her own safety and reputation to achieve it. This fascinating fictional memoir provides a searing portrait of an intelligent woman, cunning enough to manipulate all the physical, emotional, and political resources available to her to shape her own bizarre destiny. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Inside Flap
The woman whose legendary beauty?and wickedness?inspired Donazetti's opera, Victor Hugo's play, and countless films and paintings at last speaks for herself.

Lucrezia Borgia. The name has long been synonymous with murder, incest, and debauchery. Illegitimate daughter of Roderigo Borgia, Pope Alexander VI, her life was marked by one forced divorce, one murdered husband, and rumors of murders she commited herself?as well as whispered affairs with both her brother Cesare and her father. But was she all that history has accused her of being, or a woman used by powerful men to gain still more power? Here, Lucrezia tells her own story, full of crime and passion.

At the turn of the 16th century, the Vatican was as decadent and violent as any royal court, and Lucrezia was raised a princess. Twice married off for political gain by Alexander and Cesare, first to an older noble she grew to love, then to the dazzlingly handsome nephew of a king who she fell in love with almost instantly, Lucrezia would not have lasting happiness with either. This is the story of a woman trapped between her own desires and the iron hand of her ultra-powerful family. Her intelligence and inner steel, as conveyed by author John Faunce, mark her as one of history's great survivors.


From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews

Is There A Copyeditor In The House?
Please don't let this author write again without one!

The book is riddled with spelling and grammar errors (even my seventh-grade daughter knows that you don't seize a horse's "reigns"), but it's the anachronisms that really set my teeth on edge. I'm not an expert in 14th-century language, but I'm willing to bet that the words "spiffy" and "sappy" weren't in common use at that time. And how Lucrezia could refer to someone's utterance as a "malapropism" when the literary character on whose name the term is based didn't exist until the 1800s is beyond me.

What ultimately made this book unreadable for me, though, was the tortured prose. An example: "...these notions became an obsessive sequence of water buckets that I was throwing on my passion's wildfire." This isn't even necessarily the worst example-just the one that occurs on the page where I finally had to give up trying to wade through the book.

a Novel with Multiple Personalities
Unfortunately, the writer cannot determine if this book was to be a farce, historical fiction, porno, or theater material. It fails miserably to be a good historical novel. Characters are all drawn the same, same dialogue from each. Smut for smut's sake. Very disappointing in so many aspects.

More a victim than villain
I wanted to love this book, but didn't. I found it in a bookstore and was drawn to the beautiful cover and the fact that it was historical fiction; the insert in the book jacket sounded interesting. I, admittedy, had never heard about the Borgias prior to this.
The overabundance of references to Greek and Roman mythology (some written in Greek) left me confused and struggling through dialogue. Shorter, less detailed references would have been just as effective. Also, have a dictionary available when reading; I learned many loooong, new words (which isn't necessarily a bad thing).
The story, itself, was interesting, but alittle slow. The drama and speed definitely picked up through the last third of the book. It was easy enough to guess about the sick and disturbed lifestyle the Borgias lived, but no actual references to the details were brought up, again , until the last third of the book. They appeared out of the blue, as if they had been discussed all along. I failed to see Lucrezia as the villain she is reputed to be, but rather saw her as a victim of a manipulative, incestual, egocentrical, power-hungry and downright psychotic family. Sure, she loved her jewels and money, but all her actions were the results of the sickness that surrounded her. To be forced into two marriages, then have them tragically and forcibly ended by the evil powers in her family (after she found love in them) would lead anyone to a life of hate and bitterness.
I felt for Lucrezia and her life story, but the writing was too complex and tried to hard to be masterful. A more readable attempt by the author would have been more satisfying and enjoyable.