novelesque_life's review against another edition
3.0
3 STARS
"My lady, Fiammetta Bianchini, was plucking her eyebrows and biting color into her lips when the unthinkable happened and the Holy Roman Emperor’s army blew a hole in the wall of God’s eternal city, letting in a flood of half-starved, half-crazed troops bent on pillage and punishment. Thus begins In the Company of the Courtesan , Sarah Dunant’s epic novel of life in Renaissance Italy. Escaping the sack of Rome in 1527, with their stomachs churning on the jewels they have swallowed, the courtesan Fiammetta and her dwarf companion, Bucino, head for Venice, the shimmering city born out of water to become a miracle of east-west trade: rich and rancid, pious and profitable, beautiful and squalid. With a mix of courage and cunning they infiltrate Venetian society. Together they make the perfect partnership: the sharp-tongued, sharp-witted dwarf, and his vibrant mistress, trained from birth to charm, entertain, and satisfy men who have the money to support her. Yet as their fortunes rise, this perfect partnership comes under threat, from the searing passion of a lover who wants more than his allotted nights to the attentions of an admiring Turk in search of human novelties for his sultan’s court. But Fiammetta and Bucino’s greatest challenge comes from a young crippled woman, a blind healer who insinuates herself into their lives and hearts with devastating consequences for them all." (From Amazon)
A fun romp in Italy, 1527 of a courtesan and her dwarf companion.
"My lady, Fiammetta Bianchini, was plucking her eyebrows and biting color into her lips when the unthinkable happened and the Holy Roman Emperor’s army blew a hole in the wall of God’s eternal city, letting in a flood of half-starved, half-crazed troops bent on pillage and punishment. Thus begins In the Company of the Courtesan , Sarah Dunant’s epic novel of life in Renaissance Italy. Escaping the sack of Rome in 1527, with their stomachs churning on the jewels they have swallowed, the courtesan Fiammetta and her dwarf companion, Bucino, head for Venice, the shimmering city born out of water to become a miracle of east-west trade: rich and rancid, pious and profitable, beautiful and squalid. With a mix of courage and cunning they infiltrate Venetian society. Together they make the perfect partnership: the sharp-tongued, sharp-witted dwarf, and his vibrant mistress, trained from birth to charm, entertain, and satisfy men who have the money to support her. Yet as their fortunes rise, this perfect partnership comes under threat, from the searing passion of a lover who wants more than his allotted nights to the attentions of an admiring Turk in search of human novelties for his sultan’s court. But Fiammetta and Bucino’s greatest challenge comes from a young crippled woman, a blind healer who insinuates herself into their lives and hearts with devastating consequences for them all." (From Amazon)
A fun romp in Italy, 1527 of a courtesan and her dwarf companion.
eleganthedgehogs's review against another edition
We all enjoyed this book. Some had been apprehensive it would play up the courtesan role, but actually was more complex wide ranging exploration of what it was like & seemed informative about the period.
juliana_aldous's review against another edition
4.0
16th-Century Venice... Courtesans.... A pleasurable summer historical novel read about the partnership between a courtesan and a her partner/pimp/dwarf. Rome is sacked and after their home and business id destroyed, the two hit the road for Venice and attempt to make a come back. The characters and the settings felt real. I plan on reading more of Dunant.
leavingsealevel's review against another edition
2.0
Airplane book, trainer-riding book, etc. Bubble gum for my brain. I am not attempting to be judge-y here; I just personally like a little more depth/politicalness from my fiction choices. Which, fwiw, I got from [b:The Enchantress of Florence|1317696|The Enchantress of Florence|Salman Rushdie|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1200508801s/1317696.jpg|2495143], which is partially set in Italy at more or less the same time.
mercipourleslivres's review against another edition
3.0
This was slow starter but picked up by the last third of the book. The fashion and food porn was decent, but the characters seemed underdeveloped as a whole. Plus the whole courtesan + dwarf sidekick was pulled off to much greater effect by Kate Quinn in "The Serpent and the Pearl" though it would probably be fair to say she owes homage to Sarah Dunant.
caitrinhughes's review
3.5
Like a 3.5
Kind of a dull story honestly but it really scratches that historical fiction itch for me. The descriptions and research are great so even if the story is meh it was an enjoyable fairly easy read for me
Kind of a dull story honestly but it really scratches that historical fiction itch for me. The descriptions and research are great so even if the story is meh it was an enjoyable fairly easy read for me
krish_'s review against another edition
2.0
Pales so much in comparison to The Birth of Venus. So disappointed.
elenajohansen's review against another edition
4.0
This might be the best male/female friendship and business partnership that I've ever read. Which is not at all what I thought I was going to be getting out of this book.
Having read one Dunant work before, I expected the lush detail in the prose, the well-composed characters, and the thematic examination of a woman's role in society through the lens of a female protagonist.
Imagine my surprise that the narrator is a man, and a little person. His "deformity" does a lot to move him out of the category of men-the-courtesan-could-sleep-with, and that aspect of it would be troubling in modern times but is entirely believable of 16th-century Venice. But his height defines his character, not in the lazy and comical way media often treats little people, but in the natural, true-to-life way of informing how he's grown up, how he interacts with the world around him, and the troubles and dangers that come along with living in a city not made to his size.
The courtesan and her life are not romanticized at all--only once do we get to peek into her bedroom for a tender moment, and even that isn't sexually charged. Her profession is depicted as exactly that--a job. One where she has to spend hours making herself beautiful, where she has to gauge the competition, where she has to know when to play politics and when to idle on the sidelines.
What kept this from being an amazing read instead of a good one was the pacing. At first, the goal was clear--Rome was sacked, they have to survive, get to somewhere safe, and set up shop again. Once that was met, they had to become successful.
And that happens in the middle. So when a chapter ended "...we were content.", I was wondering where the story was going. Something else had to go wrong, and while I saw some hints of foreshadowing with some of the minor characters, I didn't have a clear picture of the direction the narrative would take.
Once I finished, I liked the book less. It's not a terrible ending, but tonally it's quite different from the early story, it's rushed, almost tacked-on, and it relies on a series of revelations that solve a mystery I never realized was present in the story to begin with. I know I'm not the most observant reader in that regard, and I have a strong distaste for the mystery genre because of it, but this was basically being smacked in the face with an answer to a question I'd never asked.
Having read one Dunant work before, I expected the lush detail in the prose, the well-composed characters, and the thematic examination of a woman's role in society through the lens of a female protagonist.
Imagine my surprise that the narrator is a man, and a little person. His "deformity" does a lot to move him out of the category of men-the-courtesan-could-sleep-with, and that aspect of it would be troubling in modern times but is entirely believable of 16th-century Venice. But his height defines his character, not in the lazy and comical way media often treats little people, but in the natural, true-to-life way of informing how he's grown up, how he interacts with the world around him, and the troubles and dangers that come along with living in a city not made to his size.
The courtesan and her life are not romanticized at all--only once do we get to peek into her bedroom for a tender moment, and even that isn't sexually charged. Her profession is depicted as exactly that--a job. One where she has to spend hours making herself beautiful, where she has to gauge the competition, where she has to know when to play politics and when to idle on the sidelines.
What kept this from being an amazing read instead of a good one was the pacing. At first, the goal was clear--Rome was sacked, they have to survive, get to somewhere safe, and set up shop again. Once that was met, they had to become successful.
And that happens in the middle. So when a chapter ended "...we were content.", I was wondering where the story was going. Something else had to go wrong, and while I saw some hints of foreshadowing with some of the minor characters, I didn't have a clear picture of the direction the narrative would take.
Once I finished, I liked the book less. It's not a terrible ending, but tonally it's quite different from the early story, it's rushed, almost tacked-on, and it relies on a series of revelations that solve a mystery I never realized was present in the story to begin with. I know I'm not the most observant reader in that regard, and I have a strong distaste for the mystery genre because of it, but this was basically being smacked in the face with an answer to a question I'd never asked.