Caprice and Rondo: The Seventh Book in the House of Niccolo (House of Niccolo/Dorothy Dunnett) [Hardcover]

Dorothy Dunnett (Author)

Book Description

Series: House of Niccolo/Dorothy Dunnett | Publication Date: May 19, 1998

Winter, 1474: In the frozen port of Danzig, Nicholas de Fleury, one-time soldier, merchant, and banker to kings, leads his raffish companions on frivolous, drunken adventures that give little indication of the dark and complex events that have brought him among them--his activities as a spy; his shifts of allegiance from the Duke of Burgundy to the Holy Roman Emperor, and back; the mischief-making at the court of Scotland so vicious that his disgusted friends cast him into justifiable exile.

        In six vivid novels (synopsized in an introduction to this volume), the peerless Dorothy Dunnett has shown us Nicholas's progress from humble dyeworks apprentice to merchant prince with his own private army, consultant to duchies and kingdoms--even as he strives to understand his origins and to come to terms with his independent, contrary wife, Gelis. And now, as the ice melts in Danzig, Nicholas must decide his own future: Will he make a new life working for the Italian colonies of the Levant? Or assist the great Muslim prince Uzum Hasan in his stance against the Turks? Will he remain in Poland, trading and fighting, or lose himself in the secret, scented gardens of the Crimea? In fact, he could appear to be doing any or all of these things while engaged in his private search for a lost fortune in gold . . .

        Nicholas has an unmapped future as Caprice and Rondo begins, yet whatever he chooses to do, he is still bound, as if by an invisible thread, to the men and women he has left behind. As always, he obliquely tries to protect them from their enemies and his own . . . and they in turn begin to learn more about his past. Nicholas will choose, and he will act. But as the military and political lines form and the great battle is launched to decide the dominance of Europe, his personal struggle for redemption and return will also be resolved--if it is not already too late.

        Caprice and Rondo, like its predecessors in the House of Niccolò sequence, offers a rare and perfect evocation of the fifteenth century, with all its pageantry, excitement, and brutal reality. The intricately twisting narrative challenges and absorbs the reader-- as England's Birmingham Post said of an earlier volume: "You move into another world: one of beauty and intrigue, love and hate, wit and breathtaking adventure." In short, from an author beloved by legions of readers, everything one could want in a novel.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

This latest installment in Dunnett's House of Niccolo series finds her hero, Nicholas de Fleury, in exile in Poland, having given up his shares in his far-flung banking enterprise in the preceding book, To Lie with Lions (1996), and alienated his friends and family in pursuit of a private vendetta. As his next step, he embarks on a journey to Caffa, the Genoese colony in the Crimea, in the company of Anna, the beautiful and mysterious wife of the notary Julius. The three years the novel covers take him to Persia and Russia. In Persia, he accompanies the papal envoy to Tabriz to persuade the ruler to take arms against the Turks. In Moscow, where he is forced to flee after the Turks take Caffa, he becomes a favorite of a grand duchess and assists with the designs for a great cathedral. His journeys are ostensibly missions of trade and diplomacy, but the real reasons behind his travels are more complicated, involving mysteries from his past that are only gradually and partly revealed. Meanwhile, his estranged wife works with Nicholas' former partners in Bruges to rebuild the bank. Some threads of the ongoing saga are tied up, but plenty of loose ends remain for the next installment. As always, Dunnett's plot twists and her command of the period are mesmerizing, though it definitely helps to have read the previous books to sort through all the people and events. Despite her dense prose style, Dunnett is a writer who should appeal even to those who find most historical fiction superficial and unconvincing. Mary Ellen Quinn

From Kirkus Reviews

The seventh volume (To Lie with Lions, 1996; The Unicorn Hunt, 1994, etc,) chronicling the extraordinary adventures of Nicholas de Fleury, a Machiavellian 15th-century merchant who is, as this hefty installment opens, still locked in battle with greedy, incompetent kings, a shadowy rival trading empire, and his estranged wife, Gelis, one of a very few figures who have been a match for him in terms of wit, passion, and cunning. Since Nicholass efforts to outwit those trying to destroy his influence have made much of Western Europe too hot for him, he turns eastward, toward Russia and the yet more mysterious lands beyond. Dunnett continues to demonstrate a distinctive ability to evoke not just the sights and sounds of the early Renaissance but, more importantly, its mindset; her characters are far more often moved by questions of respect, family (a particularly touchy subject for the mysterious Nicholas), and power than by more mundane emotional upheavals. By novels end, de Fleury, an engaging mix of ruthlessness and honor, seems closer to winning Gelis back, has helped preserve yet another kingdom, and has, for the time being, once more outflanked his foes. Those devoted to this unique series will be relieved to hear that it has not yet reached its conclusion. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 539 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (May 19, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679454772
• ISBN-13: 978-0679454779
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.6 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,570,546 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rich and complex, February 9, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Caprice and Rondo (The House of Niccolo, 7) (Paperback)

Caprice was everything I expected from Dorothy Dunnet, and I expect a lot. Great atmosphere, great story. But warning, don't start with this book. Read others in the series first. Like all the Niccolo and Lymond books, Caprice is beautifully researched and difficult to follow in the beginning pages. There are dozens of characters, most witty, and they often read each other's minds. Even minor players have large roles, so that following their conversations--and indeed who's talking--takes some getting used to. But there's a reward. Soon, you catch on and and it's a joy. Dunnet's ellipses let you participate much more than a simpler presentation that gives every character's every thought to you straight up. These people become your own family, friends, acquaintances and enemies. Unlike another reviewer, I found the characters exquisite, but then I know them from several prior books. It really helps to read the first book, Niccolo Rising, if not the ones between, to understand Nicolas and sympathize with him. And I doubt Gelis, Nicolas'wife, or her actions would have any meaning at all to readers who had not sufferred through her betrayal in earlier books. But it's still a great story. This edition does have a nice list of characters and summary of the plots from previous books, which are very welcome.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Niccolo Series begins to draw to a conclusion, November 16, 2000

By 

Richard R. Horton (Webster Groves, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Caprice and Rondo (The House of Niccolo, 7) (Paperback)

The seventh of Dorothy Dunnett's eight book House of Niccolo series is Caprice and Rondo. The Niccolo books have never engaged me quite as thoroughly as her earlier series The Lymond Chronicles did. Those are among my very favorite historical novels ever. The Niccolo novels are good, but I have tended to find them a bit harder to follow. However, in the particular case of Caprice and Rondo, I was able to follow the action quite readily. Perhaps as the series comes to a conclusion the answers to the many mysteries are becoming clear.

This book opens with Nicholas in Poland. He's been kicked out of his company and exiled from Scotland and the Netherlands as a result of his actions in the last book. (This is another reason the Niccolo books are a bit harder to like: Nicholas does some pretty clearly bad stuff. Whenever Lymond seemed to be up to something bad, it turned out he was being misunderstood.) In Poland he spends a winter womanizing and drinking with the pirate Pauel Benecke, who wants him to join in a pirate mission the following summer. But Anselm Adorne, the upright burgomaster from Bruges who misunderstands Nicholas pretty comprehensively, and who stands in a role vaguely similar to Lymond's brother Richard Crawford in the Lymond books: a good man who tends to regard the hero as an enemy because he doesn't understand him, shows up on a mission to try to recover damages from an earlier piracy committed by Benecke. Also, Adorne and the Patriarch of Antioch, Ludovico da Bologna, intend to head to Tabriz to negotiate with the Persian Uzum Hasan for support against the Turks. (So far, every character I have mentioned except Nicholas is an actual historical character. Dunnett does this extravagantly, on occasion, I think, using characters mentioned very briefly in historical records, which allows her to claim a character is historical but treat said person just like a fictional character.) And Nicholas' long-time friend Julius and his wife Anna also intend to go East, to Caffa in the Crimea, to negotiate new trade agreements for their part of Nicholas' former Bank. Inevitably, Nicholas is drawn into accompanying Anna and the Patriarch to Caffa and Tabriz, and he's also drawn into (or does he do it on purpose???) shooting Julius so he can't come, and frustrating Adorne's plans so he has to go home, mad at Nicholas again. Follows then plenty of action and danger and sexual tension, (this last as Nicholas, frustrated by 8 years of separation from his wife Gelis, must resist his attraction to Julius' beautiful wife), as things go horribly bad in Caffa, and Nicholas ends up trekking to Moscow, and a meeting with the mysterious Greek with a Wooden Leg, Acciajouli, who was involved in the very first of Nicholas' escapades from Book 1.

In parallel, we follow Gelis and Katelijne back in Scotland and Bruges, as the evil David de Salmeton hoves into view again, ready perhaps to revenge himself on Nicholas by attacking those close to him. At the same time Gelis begins to work to resolve her conflicted feeling about Nicholas. Of course, eventually Nicholas is lured back to the west, to confront difficult revelations about his family, and about his relationship with Gelis, and with others, and to try to rebuff various threats to his family and friends.

Much is resolved: perhaps almost too much. Some of the eventual revelations are a bit lurid, and perhaps a bit too reminiscent of some "revelations" in the Lymond books. Nonetheless, the book is fascinating reading, absorbing, colourful, complex. Another fine chapter in an excellent series of historical novels.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exquisite, mesmerizing historical drama set in 15th cnt Euro, July 3, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Chicago, Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Caprice and Rondo: The Seventh Book in the House of Niccolo (House of Niccolo/Dorothy Dunnett) (Hardcover)

In this 7th volume in Dunnett's intricate, superb historical series, protagonist Nicholas de Fleury is bent upon an aimless, self-destructive existence, matching pirate Paul Benecke drink for drink and woman for woman after being exiled from Scotland for plotting to destroy the country. But Nicholas' natural curiosity and intelligence are soon rekindled by a visit from his former mentor, Julius and Julius' beautiful, mysterious wife, Anna. Nicholas is lured on an adventure which will take him to the courts of Russia while he searches for the gold which was stolen from his in Cyprus. As usual, Dunnett has deftly woven a fascinating tapestry of history,culture and character. In Nicholas, Dunnett has created a complex, infinitely fascinating hero; a man capable of creating brilliant works of art but also capable of acts of astonishing cruelty. Nicholas' contradictory nature was shaped by his tragic childhood which is revealed when Nicholas' wife, Gelis, embarks on a mission to find the truth about his disputed parentage. Is Simon St. Pol really Nicholas's father or was his mother unfaithful as Simon has always claimed? Gelis hopes to understand what drives Nicholas in his relentless manipulation of people and events. Few authors have ever achieved the mastery of plot and character that Dunnett has developed. Her historical novels demand a level of commitment far greater than the average bestseller. But the reader is rewarded with a sophisticated, absorbing drama that becomes addictive.