The Birth of Venus

A Novel

By: Sarah Dunant

Narrated by: Kathe Mazur

Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family's Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter's abilities.

But their burgeoning relationship is interrupted when Alessandra's parents arrange her marriage to a wealthy, much older man. Meanwhile, Florence is changing, increasingly subject to the growing suppression imposed by the fundamentalist monk Savonarola, who is seizing religious and political control. Alessandra and her native city are caught between the Medici state, with its love of luxury, learning, and dazzling art, and the hellfire preaching and increasing violence of Savonarola's reactionary followers. Played out against this turbulent backdrop, Alessandra's married life is a misery, except for the surprising freedom it allows her to pursue her powerful attraction to the young painter and his art.

The Birth of Venus is a tour de force, the first historical novel from one of Britain's most innovative writers of literary suspense. It brings alive the history of Florence at its most dramatic period, telling a compulsively absorbing story of love, art, religion, and power through the passionate voice of Alessandra, a heroine with the same vibrancy of spirit as her beloved city.

©2004 Sarah Dunant (P)2004 Books on Tape, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Arresting tale of art, love and betrayal....Dunant's vivid, gripping novel gives fresh life to a captivating age of glorious art and political turmoil." (Publishers Weekly)
"Lush and intellectually gripping novel....This is a beautifully written and captivating work." (Booklist)
"The imaginative energy of the enterprise is clearly warmblooded, playful, even reckless....Dunant puts me in mind of a well-fed cat, quick-witted house cat, crouched before the mouse hole of history. She's not that hungry, but she will pounce upon whatever emerges, just for the fun of chasing is all over the house." (The New York Times Book Review)
"Sterlin invokes excitement in hushed tones and invites one to reflect on poignant moments. Both Dunant and Sterlin catch the excitement of this important period in history." (AudioFile)

not as advertised!

The original sound clip and short description made it sound like a book with a twist. May be a good read if you like a slow, winding path through the past with tons of historical detail. Very misleading, long slow story line.

Hopeful about it, but sadly really disappointed.

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The story took a long time to come together but I thought it would be worth it. But it really didn't move forward and was somewhat of a let down for all the time spend to get through the first part.

Would you ever listen to anything by Sarah Dunant again?

I would pass on this author unless you are a person really in to art history and a mediocre story. It had such potential but missed the mark on a great story. It left me confused about the motivation for the main character.

What about Kathe Mazur’s performance did you like?

The performance was completely fine. She did a good job.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The history of the time period you can tell was well researched. And interwoven into the story well. I am reading other books about the time period and from the historical perspective, it was a nice complement to those other books.

don't waste your time

I love Florence and Florentine history. I was hoping this would be engaging. The story is weak but the narration is weaker. In fact, its awful. I really gave it it the college try but I gave up after about 5 chapters. The reader drove me crazy. and the story is lame and implausible. I appreciate the research they did but its just awful.

Birth of venus (unabridged)

I have no idea whether this is a good story because the reader's voice was so annoying that I just deleted it from my listening library.

An Excellent Read

Skillfully wrought tale.

TEDIOUS

Silly, uninspired plot of no particular interest. So unmemorable, I'm having difficulty using all of Audible's required fifteen words.

Boring Tale

I hoped that this audiobook would be entertaining, but the shallow story and bad narration just makes it second-rate.

i have read all of her other works

and this one was absolutely a struggle, the main character is whiney and annoying. not any of the magic of her other fictional works regarding the Italian Renaissance. save yourself the time and money and be happy with Sarah Dunant's other works. not this one. it's with gritted teeth I finish this awful book. save your money.

Disappointing

After reading the great reviews here and on other sites I was looking forward to this. I thought the story was only so-so and the narrator was nothing fantastic. How stereotypical - a super smart, head strong girl in an age that has no use for smart women, marriage to a guy who ends up being gay (no big spoiler - you can see this one coming a mile away), a black female slave who is also very smart and not to be treated like a menial and an understanding mother. The parts that dealt with Florence in the late 15th century were interesting. If I'd gotten the audio from the library I probably would have taken it back without finishing it.

trashy romance

After reading the publisher's comments and the other reviews, I had no idea that this was going to be a trashy romance novel. Unless that's what you like, I'd avoid this one.