Vivaldi's Virgins: A Novel [Paperback]

Barbara Quick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 29, 2008

Abandoned as an infant, fourteen-year-old Anna Maria dal Violin is one of the elite musicians living in the foundling home where the "Red Priest," Antonio Vivaldi, is maestro and composer. Fiercely determined to find out where she came from, Anna Maria embarks on a journey of self-discovery that carries her into a wondrous and haunting world of music and spectacle, bringing eighteenth-century Venice magically to life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Quick (Northern Edge) takes readers into the cloistered world of the Ospedale della Pietà, a convent orphanage and music school. Narrator Anna Maria dal Violin, an actual violin prodigy and 18th-century resident of the Venetian Pietà, is among the orphanage girls who studies under maestro (and priest) Antonio Vivaldi. Anna Maria's strong spirit shines throughout, whether stealing into the Jewish ghetto to learn about her parents, struggling to master Vivaldi's grueling violin passages or doing penance for her independent nature. Quick creates a hauntingly authentic setting rife with cruel punishments and brief moments of grand rewards. Anna Maria's quest to discover her identity is the centerpiece, though readers may find it less intriguing than the other story lines (among them Vivaldi's relationship with renowned young singer Anna Girò). It's a noble effort that misses a few high notes. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School—The 18th-century world of Venice and famed composer Antonio Vivaldi come to life in this novel. The story depicts the imagined life of the real Anna Maria dal Violin, an orphan at the Ospedale della Pietà who was his renowned pupil. Through Anna Maria's eyes, Quick introduces readers to the dazzling world of Venetian society, but she does not flinch from portraying the darker side of a city in decline. Anna Maria experiences a life of ambiguity. As an orphan living a cloistered and regimented existence, she wants desperately to uncover the mystery of her mother's true identity. As she blossoms into a young woman and an amazing talent, her private pain drives her to risk all in order to discover who she really is and where she came from. Like Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring (HarperCollins, 1999), this book has great appeal, especially for teenage girls; it also offers much to those readers interested in the composer and his influence on Venetian society in the early 1700s.—Catherine Gilbride, Farifax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (July 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060890533
• ISBN-13: 978-0060890537
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #831,620 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I wouldn't trade my job as a novelist for any other job in the world. Writing is a refuge for me--a secret garden, a doorway into other lives, an occasion for expanding on the truth and getting paid for it (once every couple of years, at least).

One life has never seemed like enough to me (maybe because I'm a Gemini?). Short of immortality or schizophrenia, fiction seemed to me to be the closest I could get to experiencing many lives from the inside-out.

My books have also brought me into contact with people from all over the world I would never have met otherwise (including, most lately, my fiance!). I can only hope that readers will begin to understand how important they are to writers--and to literature itself! Buying books is an act of cultural affirmation. Literature--and writers--will perish without readers who are committed to buying, reading, and talking about books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vivaldi's Virgins: The coming of age of Vivaldi's violinist, July 3, 2007

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D. Merrimon Crawford (Colorado) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vivaldi's Virgins: A Novel (Hardcover)

Vivaldi's Virgins is a coming of age story set in 18th century Venice utilizing and transforming a literary form popular during that era. As a violinist, the narrator allows the reader to experience the richness of Vivaldi's music from a perspective unavailable today to modern listeners. Barbara Quick presents a vivid image of 18th century Venice and Vivaldi through the eyes and life of the narrator Anna Maria. An orphan in the cloistered halls of the Ospedale della Pieta, Anna Maria dal Violin has been handpicked at an early age to join the elite musical group within the foundling home and be taught by the maestro Vivaldi. Although cloistered within the Pieta, the reader learns of Venice through those who come to visit the Pieta and through the tours and secret escapes of the curious girls.

Barbara Quick's novel removes the masks so carefully worn by the upper strata of Venice society. Vivaldi is seen through the eyes of his students and musicians. Vivaldi's Virgins is a combination of first person narrative in which Anna Maria tells her life story and an epistolary novel 'a novel told through letters', a genre emerging in popularity during the 18th century. As a disciplinary measure, Sister Laura instructs Anna Maria to write to calm Anna Maria's growing passion. She writes letters to her unknown mother never knowing whether they will be read nor by whom. Anna Maria lies hidden and almost invisible, living behind a grille from the public. Barbara Quick's novel removes the grille and allows the reader to peer inside the life of this 18th century woman who cries out for her mother and makes Vivaldi's genius heard by his public. Anna Maria dal Violin is the body and the violin through which Vivaldi's music is heard. Images of the voice of the violin and the voice of a child's body maturing merge with the search for her mother and her prayers to the Virgin Mother. A special plot twist at the end will delight all readers. This novel will appeal to a wide range of readers: those craving something of literary beauty, Vivaldi and classical music lovers, women wanting to experience history through the eyes of the women who lived it but for whom history rarely relates their story, and anyone wanting to peek into the lesser known history of Venice or music.

In the tradition of Dante Alighieri and his letters to Beatrice also written without certainty that they would ever be read by the intended reader, Barbara Quick cites this medieval reference, combining it with the 18th century epistolary novel and modernizes both. Although a reader need no knowledge of these literary traditions to enjoy this novel, the thoroughness of the author's research heightens the reading pleasure. The historical detail is well researched and the fictional imagination is breathtaking. The poetic language of each sentence is exquisite. Although I am a fast reader, I found myself reading slowly, creeping actually, but pausing on each page to savor its beauty and poetic prose. It has been 17 years since my graduate studies in literature and I thought I had finally conquered my terrible habit of writing in my books. After reading ten pages of Barbara Quick's Vivaldi's Virgins, I broke down and wrote in the book and continued to the end, rereading each line as I underlined. There is a multitude of passages so beautiful that I want to reread them several times.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a beautiful novel full of music and longing, July 8, 2007

By 

Stephanie Cowell (New York, New York United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vivaldi's Virgins: A Novel (Hardcover)

The Ospedale della Pieta in early 18th century Venice was a home for foundling girls, the most musical of whom were trained as orchestra members or singers. Strictly cloistered from the world, they performed for the cream of Venice in their church while remaining hidden from view. The adolescent girls, who long for knowledge of their parents, discover friendship, desperate crushes, young sensuality, and the depths of music. The great composer Vivaldi wrote some of his most gorgeous music for them and taught them and the portrait the author draws of him is vivid and unforgettable.

Fourteen-year-old Anna Maria is his prize violin student. Encouraged by one of the nuns to write longing letters to the mother whose name she does not even know, she dares to break the strict rules to find her heritage and meet with a young man. As her three closest friends each in turn escape the sexless confines of the Ospedale where music is the only sensuality allowed, she too becomes more desperate and daring, riding out masked at night in a gondola for music and for love.

The writing evokes Venice and the love of music and the longing of young girls so beautifully! I read some passages with tears in my eyes. At one point when music may be lost to Anna Maria forever, it was so poignant I had to put the book down a few times. Like a previous reviewer, I marked many passages to read again. Some sentences I had to reread several times before going on. They were truly music.

I am the author of the Viking Penguin novel MARRYING MOZART.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Whether or not we grow old, we all die young here.", July 3, 2007

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vivaldi's Virgins: A Novel (Hardcover)

A baby girl is delivered to a foundling home, Ospedale della Pieta in Venice in the early 18th century. The Pieta is a sanctuary not only for foundlings but an academy for talented musicians under the tutelage of Antonio Vivaldi, the "red priest". By the time she is eight years old, Anna Maria dal Violin has been noticed by the master, included in his coveted group of students. Since her childhood, Anna Maria has searched for her identity, traveling in this pursuit beyond the cloistered walls into Venetian society, through the Jewish ghetto, to a masked ball and an opera, escaping for a time the structured communal world of the convent into the great spectacle of Venice. Each year since her fourteenth birthday, the girl has written a letter to the mother she has never known, sharing her life behind the convent walls and the music of the master, the precious gift of her own talent as it matures under Vivaldi's instruction.

Isolating the very formative adolescent years of Anna Maria's sojourn at the Pieta, the author reconstructs her quest for her mother, her unceasing diligence and the tumultuous years of her young life, when a dedication to her music defines her every waking moment. Nevertheless, Anna Maria maintains a constant vigil, hoarding the bits of evidence that come her way: "The cracks between the puzzle pieces tell as much a story as the pieces themselves." As reflected in her letters during this period, the spirited Anna Maria is easily seduced by the magic of Vivaldi's compositions and the designs of her friends as they seek their own paths in a world beyond the community. The answers are never obvious, more often than not obscure information that seems to bear no relevance to her life. But Anna Maria is nothing if not patient, the discipline and rituals of convent life the construct of daily existence.

There are tantalizing views of the republic in its final years; months of ribald carnival balls, parties where revelers wear ornate masks to conceal their identities; the dark corridors of the Jewish ghetto, wherein lies a crucial clue to Anna Maria's family ties; the excesses of young women cloistered from the world, yearning to participate in an excitement they are denied; and the petty resentments and faithful alliances within the community, where one cruel teacher blights the days of her students and another, infinitely kind, teaches Anna Maria the rudiments of survival; finally the genius of Vivaldi, who becomes Anna Maria's teacher and remains friend and mentor until the end, celebrating his gifted student's skill, the notes of her violin akin to the voices of angels.

Although she lives well into her eighties, it is the critical years of her search that define the novel, a quiet, desperate search to learn who delivered her to the Pieta, her daydreams and vivid imaginings finally bearing fruit thanks to perseverance and the kindness of others. In a poignant piece of Venetian history, the world inside the cloistered walls of the Pieta is revealed, all the more fascinating for its comparison with the debauchery of the city. Ultimately, it is the music inspired by Vivaldi's genius that endures, the sweet notes that buoy up a sometimes flagging spirit, comforting a woman with no ties to the world save her music. Luan Gaines/2007.