The Birth of Venus: A Novel
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The Birth of Venus: A Novel Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Sarah Dunant (Author), Kathe Mazur (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 1,917 ratings
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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.

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  1. Listening Length
    13 hours and 18 minutes
  2. Author
    Sarah Dunant
  3. Narrator
    Kathe Mazur
  4. Audible release date
    February 12, 2004
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B0001O349Y
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 13 hours and 18 minutes
Author Sarah Dunant
Narrator Kathe Mazur
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date February 12, 2004
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B0001O349Y
Best Sellers Rank #46,251 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#3,104 in Historical Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
#8,857 in Romance (Audible Books & Originals)
#13,620 in Historical Fiction (Books)

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
1,917 global ratings
Sarah Dunant is a brilliant historical writer who takes you back to the Italian ...
5 Stars
Sarah Dunant is a brilliant historical writer who takes you back to the Italian ...
Check my review on Amazon.com. Sarah Dunant is a brilliant historical writer who takes you back to the Italian Renaissance era and the beautiful city of Florence, Italy.
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Top reviews from the United States

Mr Axolotl
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating historical soap opera
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2024
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I don’t usually read such books but this was one fascinating read for me. Interesting main character and late 15th century Italy goings on made this a book I couldn’t put down. I’ve read Durant early Italian historical dramas also.
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Diana Faillace Von Behren
4.0 out of 5 stars Intricate Portrayal of Florence in Savonarola's Time
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2004
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Alessandra tells her story of Florence during the tight reign of the monk Savonarola, in the form of a memoir, found after her death by fellow sisters in a provincial convent. Living in an age where classic thought and sensibilities are revisited and possessing an acute mind and an acrid tongue, she must resign herself to a more conventional role as a woman of the Renaissance, bound by duty to marry and bear children rather than be the philosopher painter she wishes to be. From the moment she encounters the painter from the North that her father has commissioned to paint the family chapel, she is relentless in seeking him out. While her first desire is to learn the secrets of color and brushwork, she finds herself attracted to the painter in ways she had not expected, and finds herself frustrated in more ways than she bargained when she must follow her appointed path as a Florentine woman.

The plot itself follows a rather straightforward course steered by somewhat predictable but well-crafted characters. Blended expertly with historical details of the age: the reign of the Medici family, the invasion of Florence by France, the paranoia of the city while under the helm of the monk, and the dropping of famous names like Botticelli, Michelangelo, Fra Angelico and Da Vinci, the author presents us with a fictitious view of what life could have been like back in the early 1500s. Alessandra's mindset is indeed, that of a 20th woman, a bit cynical and slightly world-weary for one of such tender years, but this adds to her appeal to the author's intended audience. Overall, the storyline compels one to read on and contains enough hints and little mysteries to keep even the most well-read reader turning the pages.

However, what fails miserably is the author's lack of solving any of the mysteries that she so tantalizingly provides for us. Alessandra fixates on the form of the snake tattooed on the man in the square, so much so that she has one tattooed on her own body---but the reason for her action is muddled and I for one do not understand the actual significance---an act of defiance? Empathy with Eve and her sin? Ironically, the significance of one of the most compelling symbols in the book remains coiled but never unfurled. Similarly, the author hints at the great artist that Alessandra loves and gives us enough clues to make some sort of guess to his identity, but then never actually tells us who he is or if he even existed. We know he is Flemish from the descriptions of the North Sea and the low country. We know he studied anatomy when it was forbidden with the likes of Michelangelo at Santo Spirito. We know that after the fall of Savonarola, he goes off to Rome to escape further persecution. He returns much later, worldly his sexual and artistic techniques honed like a razor, but again, we do not know his identity. Personally, as I read, I assumed he was a creation, but enough of my fellow reviewers have voiced that he was a real historical figure for me to investigate. Lastly, the title, calling to mind Botticelli's masterpiece, has little or nothing to do with the plot. As this book was published in the same time period when books like Vreeland's Girl in Hyacinth Blue and Chevalier's Girl With a Pearl Earring have great popularity, one cannot help but think that the title suggests another imaginative story behind a great work of art. The Birth of Venus, however, is the story of a woman and her duty rather than her act as muse for a great painting or sculpture.

Bottom line: if you are looking for a Girl With a Pearl Earring type confection, you will not find it here. However, if a story told from a woman's perspective, albeit imagined, piques your interest especially told in the colorful velvet world of art and enlightenment of the Renaissance (even in the shadow of Savonarola) you will enjoy undertaking this short journey of duty, love and art.
68 people found this helpful
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BruPete
3.0 out of 5 stars Read "Agony and the Ecstasy" Instead
Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2009
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This is a pretty good novel about Rennaisance Florence. The history of the period is interwoven into a compelling story about a young female artist in the time of Savonarola. If you are reading this because you want to acquaint yourself with some Italian history before a trip to Italy, I recommend a far better book,"The Agony and the Ecstasy" by Irving Stone.
5 people found this helpful
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pjburn
5.0 out of 5 stars Philosophy, art, passion, betrayals
Reviewed in the United States on February 10, 2017
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Alessandra Cecchi, daughter of a moderately successful cloth merchant in 15th century Florence, lives in a time of great upheaval, following the 1492 death of Leonardo di Medici, that saw the rise of Savonarola’s rule and the mad Dominican’s demise. These historical events frame a story told by an intrepid young woman, enamored of art and in love with love, who moves from infatuation to marriage, to pregnancy, motherhood and maturity. What talent was wasted in such spirits as Allessadra’s, for “No one had seen her naked until her death.” Naked talent untaught. Dunant’s is mature, her descriptions delightful, her history unobtrusively accurate, her characters as vivid as Michelangelo’s paints.
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Victoria G.
4.0 out of 5 stars Enchanting and Captivating Fiction
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2007
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This novel is an enchanting read. We experience Florence in the days following the death of one of the Medici through the eyes and mind of Alessandra Cecchi, a young woman of a well-to-do family, whose intellectual leanings make her an oddity in her household. The coming-of-age story is enriched by the detailed background of Florence.

The best aspects of this book are:

- The connections between the characters. Some of Alessandra's conversations with her mother, her sister, her husband and her slave Erila, are moving - sometimes light, sometimes profound. You feel love spill out of them. I confess I returned to a number of the later conversations and read them over and over.

- The attitude toward that religious firebrand, the hellfire preaching monk Savonarola. Although Alessandra's life is affected by the city's reaction to this monk, we also sense her interest in other aspects of life, and her ambivalence towards his preaching. It's nice to see that her reaction was neither black nor white but more complex.

- The texture of the description: the richness of the colors, the dyes, the cathedral, the clothing, the carving, the pigments that Alessandra mixes herself - these are all enhanced by Alessandra's passion for art.

- The point of view of the intelligent young woman, with the awkwardness associated dancing, menstruation and looking for a husband, encountering many of life's situations for the first time.

The worst aspects of this book are:

- There may be problems with some of the historical part of this historical fiction. For example:

Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo overlapped, but Leonardo was older than Michelangelo and very well known. A passage in the novel implies the reverse.

Also, if the most of the novel's action occurs in 1492 or shortly thereafter, it's hard to see how there could be dyes from the West Indies. Columbus did not return from his initial voyage until 1493.

So, readers may want to check other information against other sources before using the novel as a basis for facts.

- Most of the frame story, although interesting and entertaining, feels retrofitted to the rest of the book. Although a connection is drawn for us, that connection seems strained, and the older Alessandra (as well as the older painter) seem to be completely different characters, whose motives and actions bear little resemblance to the characters of the earlier days. However, the story which takes place earlier is vibrant and passionate.
13 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Andrew Zimbel
5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful book
Reviewed in Canada on December 25, 2021
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This is a wonderful book that I read years ago. It has stuck with me all these years so when I needed a good book for a Bookclub friend I bought it again. I highly recommend it for the writing and the fascinating subject matter. Enjoy.
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Angus L
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant. And visceral.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 27, 2020
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This is a brilliant story - historically accurate as far as I can make out and written in a modern, "spares-you-nothing" style with none of the gruesome bits left out. Loved it.
2 people found this helpful
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Lalita Agrawal
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in India on December 30, 2017
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excellent book and great discounts by amazon. Such an excellent book and that too only for Rs.164
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SRS
5.0 out of 5 stars Me fascinó este libro porque narra hechos históricos de la Cudad de Florencia cuando estaba en su apogeo artístico y los años co
Reviewed in Mexico on July 27, 2015
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Me gustó la manera elegante de escribir. Aprendí muchas palabras que no son del idioma coloquial. Narra los eventos sexuales sin morbo y de una manera natural.
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Reviewed in Germany on June 14, 2016
Verified Purchase
I have read several of Sarah Dunant's novels and they never disappoint. Highly enjoyable for anyone who enjoys historical fiction.
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