Daughter of Venice [Hardcover]

Donna Jo Napoli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 12, 2002

In 1592, Donata is a noble girl living in a palazzo on the Grand Canal. Girls of her class receive no education and rarely leave the palazzo. In a noble family, only one daughter and one son will be allowed to marry; Donata, like all younger daughters, will be sent to a convent. Donata longs to be tutored like her brothers and to see the Venice she has glimpsed only on the map. What is the world beyond her balcony, beyond what she sees when she glides, veiled, in a gondola down the canal? She dresses as a boy and escapes the palazzo on the Grand Canal to see the world before she is shut away, and to try to find a way to escape her fate. Donata risks everything; she changes her life, and her family’s life, forever when she walks through the door and encounters a Venice she never knew existed.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Award-winning author Donna Jo Napoli whisks young readers away to glittering Renaissance Venice in this first-rate historical novel about a young woman who longs to experience the wide world beyond her cloistered window. The year is 1592, and 14-year-old Donata is a pampered member of the noble Mocenigo family. But Donata is restless. Always confined to the palazzo, she is tired of learning everything second-hand from her brothers. And she is angered by the Venetian law that states only her older sister may marry. Donata knows that the only destiny that awaits her is the convent or maiden aunt-hood, neither of which are very appealing. "The mysteries of Venice are like a rainbow--and I am soon to be shut away from them." But as part of an elaborate scheme to outwit her parents, Donata decides to disguise herself as a beggar boy. Finally, she sees the real Venice, and it is both as beautiful as she had believed and more horribly raw than she could have ever imagined. Now she has no idea how she can ever reconcile what she has learned with the life she is expected to lead.

Based on one of the first acknowledged female Venetian scholars, Daughter of Venice is so rich with historical detail and intrigue that readers will quickly feel the desperation and exhilaration of Donata's daring deception. Napoli provides an authentic taste of this complex society on the brink of change and the ancient rules that still bound its women both physically and mentally. A gorgeous, bountiful book. (Ages 10 to 15) --Jennifer Hubert

From Publishers Weekly

Napoli returns to the locale of Stones in Water and For the Love of Venice, this time for a costume drama set in the late 16th century. At 14, Donata Mocenigo and her twin sister watch carefully as their noble parents set about finding a husband for their older sister. Venetian economics dictate that one daughter of a noble family will surely wed, but only with luck will a second daughter be married the remaining daughters either enter convents or care for a married brother's children. Eschewing a traditional romance, Napoli forges a plot with contemporary elements. Donata wants to see Venice and receive the same education as her brothers; she studies the family business and embraces what facts she can uncover about Venetian history and politics. Obtaining a working-class boy's clothes, she disguises herself and sets out on furtive daytime explorations of her beloved city. Soon she is befriended by an attractive young Jewish boy, who helps her find a morning job as a copyist (even though she can't read or write); with help from her sisters, her escapades go unnoticed by her parents. Enjoying the tour of historical Venice and the taste of its complex society and government, readers may not mind Donata's seeming immunity to the mores and prejudices of her day not even when, to avoid an arranged marriage, she anonymously and falsely denounces herself as a convert to Judaism and still earns herself a happy ending. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 275 pages
• Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books (March 12, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385327803
• ISBN-13: 978-0385327800
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,145,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For all information about Donna Jo Napoli (books, events, biography, awards, contact information), please go to http://www.donnajonapoli.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The story of a remarkable girl with big dreams, June 9, 2002

By 

hiphopgirl_1000 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Daughter of Venice (Hardcover)

Fourteen-year-old Donata is fortunate to be the daughter of a noble family. However being the daughter of a respective family has its problems for headstrong Donata. She is protected from the outside world and all noble's daughter will not get an education. Being not the oldest daughter, Donata will not marry either, her destiny is to confined in a covent for the rest of her life. But because she has a twin sister Laura, Donata clings onto the hope that her father might find a husband for both of them. When her hopes are dashed, Donata comes up with the plan to see Venice, the Venice outside of her palazzo, before she is shut away forever. Her choice will bring many changes to her family and will alter many people's lives, including her own.

This was a wonderful historical fiction book by Donna Jo Napoli seen through the eyes of a remarkable girl with big dreams of the future. I read this book in one sitting and it was way better than I ever dreamed it would be. It illustrates perfectly the hopes and aspirations of a girl who wants to see the outside world---a world she has never known.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GREAT BOOK, November 12, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Daughter of Venice (Mass Market Paperback)

this is a great book! the beginning is a little boring. the book also has very BIG words that you would have to look up. it is very interesting and it tells about how life was back then. if you like historical fiction then you'll love this book.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite books!, October 20, 2002

By 

"royaldiaryfan2000" (Aston, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Daughter of Venice (Hardcover)

I checked a book out by Donna Jo Napoli by this same author-Donna Jo Napoli-called Sirena and I loved it so much that I decided to read this books when I saw it in a local bookstore. This book starts out slow but starts to progress and build up until at the end a ton of action erupts and a great and unexpected ending comes around. The story is about Donata- a 14 year old daughter of a rich Venetian merchant.She grows up secluded in the family's palazzo-away from the real world, education, learning, and everyhting that has to do with men.However, as she is gettin golder her mother is planning to wed away some of her daughters, the rest to be sent away to a convent-one of the brides being the beautiful Donata.Before it is too late and Donata is kept in a house with children forever, she decides to experience the Venice thta her brothers and all men in her family have ever known. Dusguising herself as a boy and having hert twin sister Laara act as her while she is gone, Donata visits the vast city. She even befriends a Jewish man who runs a newspaper-and decides to be an employee and learn to write and read as she earns money.Everyday she goes out to the Jewish ghetto and every night she returns home in time for dinner. However, the story isn't all fun and adventure. Donata's mother thinks that Donata is doing all of the work Laura is doing(Laura is doing her chores and Donata's).So, Donata is to be amrried when Laura deserves it.After taking lessons with her brothers from a private tutor, learning to write at a newspaper, and becoming more educated thna any other girl in her family-Donata hatches a plan-a plan that could destroy her family and have them cast out of Venice.But Donata does it for love of her sister, Laura. I really enjoyed this book and it really used a lot of helpful Italian, showed you Italian history, and told a story that is truly genuine and well thought up and written. I recommend this book to all historical fiction fans.

I also reccomend-Dear America, Royal Diaries, Young Royals, all of Donna Jo Napoli's books-especially Sirena and Beast