Customer Reviews

The Book of the Courtier (Norton Critical Editions)

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The Book of the Courtier is one of those books that you hear frequently cited, but rarely actually read. It seems a shame to me if it remains unread. I expected it to take me a while to wade through it. I expected it to be dense and difficult to penetrate. Instead, it read very quickly and easy. The prose was modern, lucid, and nearly compulsively readable.

The book is structured as a conversational game carried out the court of the Duke of Urbino in the rooms of his wife Elisabetta Gonzaga. In four books, different members of the court sketch out the ideal Courtier and the ideal Lady. The books treat various subjects, including the nature of grace, love, humor, gender equality, and necessary skills. The unfamiliar details of the time are mixed with the quite familiar and recognizable human foibles that are still relevant today.

Castiglione is perceptive and witty and quite loving in the way he draws the people in the book. Both the "real" people having the conversation, and the imaginary ideal people being described are well developed.

I enjoyed it, and I recommend it. You don't need to be a scholar to enjoy it as well.