Customer Reviews

Madman of Venice

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wanted to like this well-meaning YA novel, but whenever the author had successfully engaged my interest she would cut to another scene and proceed to tell her story in the most uninteresting way possible rather than to show us her characters in action.

My other complaint is that despite the historical setting there was little effort to make the characters congruent with the time. In that era, teenagers were regarded as adults, rather than children.

My breaking point came at the middle of the book. Rather than allow the girl character to discover that the boy/young man loves her, the author has a minor character tell the girl all about it. Why spend half the book making a big deal of the fact that the guy is too shy to declare himself and then blow all the dramatic possibility of that like this?

And could it be that continually asking questions might not be the best way to create dramatic tension in the reader? Why not allow your heroine to ask dozens of them before breakfast and engage in hokey theorizing about the investigation without a shred of evidence? Could it be some readers will actually stand for this? Should I?

This book features well-meaning characters and a plot about pirates, abductions and the Jewish community in Venice. It's kinda sorta okay. I'm not a big fan of "okay" in literature for young people. Seems to me they deserve only the best.

Set in the early 17th century, this young adult novel is the story of Ned Fletcher, an orphan taken in by a wealthy English merchant as a clerk and bookkeeper. In love with his patron's daughter, Celia, Ned is a dreamer who loves to write plays and poetry. He's managed to see several of Shakespeare's plays at the Globe Theatre and is therefore delighted when his benefactor decides to include both Celia and himself on a trip to Venice to investigate a couple of mysteries. The novel is inspired by two of Shakespeare's plays and may very well act as an introduction to the bard's writings to the target group.

I think if I were a girl of 12 or 13, I would love this book. It has romance, mystery, travel and adventure. The arc of the plot is cleverly carried through to the end and the settings are very well done. I've visited Venice and the descriptions of both exteriors and interiors of the fabled architecture of that city are well portrayed. So are the wonders of gliding through the canals. As well there are the subtle lessons of tolerance versus "man's inhumanity to man." So for the early teenager, the book is both entertaining and educational.

For the older, more sophisticated teenager or the adult reader, not so much. A more critical, advanced reader would definitely pick up on a few problems. For example there are many anachronisms such as "she's a piece of work," "small time crook," and "dead in the water." Also both the narration and dialogue are often overly simplistic and sound almost childish. And yet, I found myself eager to finish the book to see where it goes. So perhaps these things are deliberate by the author because she knows the genre and I really don't.

Based on these thoughts and a readership of ages 11 to 15, I am going to give it a good rating.

I was not at all impressed. Weak, contrived storyline, overdone dialogue, wooden and predictable characters. The mystery was melodramatic and shallow. Honestly, this book was just stupid, and I don't say that lightly. There are much better historical mysteries, and much better novels set in Venice, if that's what you're looking for. DOn't bother with this one.

You don't have to know Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice to follow this story, but it does add a deeper layer to the story ( as does knowing Shakespeare's Twelfth Night).

It is a fun, light tale of true love, jealousy, plots, intrigue, revenge, and discovery, set in Venice in the Elizabethan era. It's heavy on the fiction part of the historical fiction, but no less enjoyable if you remember not to take it too seriously.

A merchant of England and his household, including his daughter and his apprentice, go to Venice to seek to discover why so many of his (and his partners) ships are being captured by pirates, and also to see if he can uncover what has happened the daughter of a Jewish doctor, who has a friend who is a musician in the Queen's court and has sought the Merchant's help.

The young apprentice loves his master's daughter, but is too bashful to say so and fears he will not be seen as good enough for her father.The girl is a headstrong young miss, rather slow to notice his devotion.

The young pair decided to work together to find the doctor's missing daughter, secretly visiting the Jewish quarters to look for information and bringing themselves into danger of discovery- or worse, for the Jewish familiy they seek to help.

There are other characters- an alchemist, a soldier or two, a madman, a duchess, and a few unsavory souls just to name a few.

Good, lighthearted escape fiction with a seasoning of history.

An entertaining read. Well written and demands a little of you to "keep up." This book is meant for teens, but we so-called adults will like it, too! Overall, this is a love story with, um, complications... That's all I say for now without giving up the (somewhat) complex plot (with a dash of high adventure on the side).

Recommended reading!

I rate Sophie Masson and her book, "The Madman of Venice"...4 stars!

P.S., I'm impressed enough by this book to see what else this author has to offer!

The setting was interesting: Venice.
Easy prose and gentle romance.
Good for Middle School level but older YA and Adults may find this book simplistic.

I must admit I'm a sucker for historical fiction. I love to learn new tidbits, without being hit over head with facts, when I read. Sophie Masson does a great job with this. Not only did I get a feel for how life in early Venetian days played out, she described Venice in such detail that it's now on my list of places that I "must" visit.

A series of pirate-led brutal killings on English ships calls for a trip to Venice, Italy. It's there that the English believe the pirates are getting their orders. London merchant, Matthew Ashby and his family plan to board a ship and sail to the "floating city" to investigate. Just before they leave England, a visitor from the Queen's court begs Master Ashby for help in finding a young Jewish girl who's vanished from the Ghetto in Venice. Celia, Ashby's daughter, and Ned, Ashby's clerk and orphaned charge, can't help but get excited at the possibility of solving the mystery. But, the thrill quickly turns to danger when they discover that the woman behind both the piracy and the disappearance of Sarah Tedeschi, is none other than the Countess Montemoro--one of the most wealthy and influential women in all of Venice.

Sophie Masson weavess romance, mystery, danger, and madness into her tale. While some parts seem disconnected, readers will be satisfied that all threads come together in the end--even if a few are a tiny bit unrealistic.
-- Reviewed by Kerry O'Malley Cerra

I was led to believe from what I'd read about this book that it took Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and wove another story into and around it, which sounded interesting. I've read several books recently that do that trick, or that take two disparate characters or sets of characters and blend them into a new tale. However, that's not exactly what we have here. This is a rather convoluted story of a young English couple, sparring partners from childhood, who travel to Venice with the girl's father and aunt to check up on piracy in the Mediterranean. The Englishman is traveling on behalf of others who need to find out what's going on. But there's another plot about the daughter of a Jewish alchemist who may or may not have been kidnapped. And there are other ingredients floating around in this stew, as well, including an ex-soldier who slips in and out of madness (hence the title, I would assume, though he's a decidedly minor character), and a Count who is beaten down into submission by his harridan of a wife, who wants to get rid of the daughter of the alchemist, etc. It's all somewhat hard to follow. In fact, I believe I've already forgotten much of what I just finished reading. This does not make it a bad book. This just makes it a book I'm somewhat sorry I devoted so much reading time to. I will say this in its favor: the author doesn't attempt to replicate the spoken language of the place and time. Pretty much all of the book takes place in Italy, but the author refrains from peppering the text with Italian words -- unlike a recent book I reviewed that takes place largely in Cuba and in which the author feels it necessary to throw the occasional Spanish word into an English conversation that would in fact be entirely in Spanish if this were to be accurate. And the style of the language here isn't Elizabethan, either. It's present-day English. This renders less authenticity to the thing, but on the other hand, it avoids pedantic quicksand. However, I kind of wish this book had taken Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and woven another story into and around it. It would have been more interesting for me.

Has all the necessary elements of a good mystery novel - intrigue, betrayal, romance, a lovely, exotic city and you can whip through it in one or two afternoons. The description of 17th century Venice is definitely adds to the depth of the story although I wish the author had spent even more time describing the city to make a more complete mental image for the reader. I also enjoyed the fact that some of the story plays out in Murano, the famous glass blowing island.

This book was timed perfectly for me as I had just returned from a trip from Ashland OR and had just seen "The Merchant of Venice". The author spends a great deal of time and effort describing the life and restricted lifestyles of Jews in Elizabeathean/17th century Europe and that really added to the development of the story.

A good summer read, the author does a nice job of weaving an interesting web and then neatly tying all the clues together in the end.

Ned Fletcher is in love with Celia Ashby, the daughter of his master. But Ned is just a poor, orphaned apprentice; he's sure he'll never win Celia's heart, let alone her father's blessing. Feelings of self-pity make him rather gloomy, though he's a romantic at heart. In his free time, Ned writes poetry about Celia and attends Shakespeare's plays at the Globe. A recent play, "The Merchant of Venice," has captured his imagination, in no small part due to its setting, Venice. Ned has long dreamt of seeing Venice, and he can hardly believe his luck when he gets a chance to visit the floating city (with Celia, no less).

Mr. Ashby and other merchants have recently been losing ships to vicious pirates. He's also had a request from one of the queen's musicians to look for a Jewish girl named Sarah Tedeschi, who went missing after being accused of witch craft by the Countess of Montemoro. Ned and Celia see this investigation as a great chance for adventure. Ned in particular, sees Venice as a city of fortune where anyone can make a name for himself. He hopes to impress Celia with his detective skills and make his fortune into the bargain. But Venice is a trecherous city where it's hard to know who to trust.

Ned and Celia stumble onto a conspiracy and quickly learn that their detective work is no game- people's lives are at stake. It'll be their own necks on the chopping block if they're not careful. But as they get deeper into the case, they also get more involved with the victims of the conspiracy. They want to solve the case more than ever, not just for themselves, but for their friends. But how will Ned and Celia find the guilty party in a city where everyone wears a mask? One thing is definite- there's no turning back.

"The Madman of Venice" is an entertaining read with mystery, romance, and action. The story has lots of twists and turns and kept me reading. I thought it ended a little too tidily, but that's not too much of a drawback. The setting of Venice, one of the main reasons I chose this book, was put to good use. Lots of famous landmarks are included, and the opulence of the city is well described. There's some good stuff here about the lives of Jews in that time and place, and about the injustices they suffered. Masson makes the atmosphere suspenseful, and there's a feeling betrayal is waiting just around the corner. The writing here is very good, neither too modern nor too quaint. It's not the best I've ever seen, but it met my expectations, which is more than I can say for some other historical fiction I've read. It's very natural sounding, and this helped the flow of the story. I much prefer this to writing that tries to impress me with big words and unnecessary metaphors.

Ned is the most prominent character in the story. He annoyed me at first, with his sour, self-pitying attitude, but he does improve. He turned out to be a pretty good character, not what you usually see. Celia is more typical- bright, willful, and charming- but she's likable. I felt the two of them were more like brother and sister than lovers, and I had a little trouble believing that Celia was really in love with Ned. Still, the banter between them is fast and witty, and they make a good team. Mr. Ashby's friend, the alchemist Orlando Leone, is a welcome addition to the story, as is the young Frenchman, Henri d'Arcy. Sarah and her family and helpers are good, too, though nothing extrordinary, and the same goes for Miss Quickly, Celia's aunt. The Countess is also pretty typical, but she's the kind of evil, scheming villain that you kind of wish would triumph over the heroes.

"The Madman of Venice" is a light but fun YA novel. It's nothing earth-shattering, but it's got a great locale and an exciting story with sympathetic characters. I'm sure that those who know "The Merchant of Venice" will especially enjoy it, though I haven't read that play myself. All in all, quite worth a read.