The Sonnet Lover: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: camera nuziale, lemon walk, main villa, New York, Leo Balthasar, Ginevra de Laura (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Goodman (The Ghost Orchid) turns to Shakespeare for the plot of her fifth novel, with mixed results. Rose Asher, Hudson College Renaissance poetry professor, returns to La Civetta, the Italian estate-turned-academic retreat where, as a college student 20 years earlier, she had the romance of her life with married professor Bruno Brunelli. He's still there, but this time Rose has come as an adviser on a film inspired by Shakespeare's sonnets and the mysterious "Dark Lady" therein. The script, which includes an unattributed Shakespeare-like sonnet (taken from a manuscript found at La Civetta), is by one of Rose's star pupils, Robin Weiss, who soon dies in a possibly suicidal accident. The manuscript has vanished, but the sonnet seems to suggest that Ginevra de Laura, the 16th-century daughter of a master mosaic artist who worked at the estate, may be its author—and Shakespear's Dark Lady. Multiple plots and subplots revolve around the manuscript's recovery, Robin's death, the film, Rose's clandestine relationship with college president Mark Abrams, Bruno's presence and worries that Bruno's son, Orlando, may be a murderer. Goodman makes a plausible fictional case for Ginevra's crossing paths with Shakespeare and ably recreates the present and past Italian countryside. Nevertheless, dizzying crisscrosses, love triangles and rampant political machinations surrounding La Civetta's ownership obscure an intriguing solution to the lingering Dark Lady mystery. (June)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Poetry approaches life aslant, offering hints of hidden truths. Hammett Prize winner Goodman makes brilliant use of the poet's perspective in a gripping mystery literary in form and content. Poet and Renaissance scholar Rose Asher (so much is in a name) teaches at a small but ambitious New York college that offers a summer program at La Civetta, a villa outside Florence. The resplendent, reputedly haunted villa is the setting for a film made by Rose's favorite student, who falls to his death immediately after the premier. Did Robin die because he discovered the long-lost work of an unknown Renaissance woman poet? Rose, involved in a secret affair with the suspiciously elusive college president, reluctantly returns to La Civetta, the site of her greatest love, to see if she can discover the truth about Ginevera de Laura. Was she the enigmatic Dark Lady of Shakespeare's sonnets? Did her blood once stain the villa's marble floors? Goodman plants macabre clues in the villa's elaborate ornamentation and makes fluent use of Shakespeare's works and life in a stunningly intricate, slyly satiric, and darkly romantic mystery of lust and privilege, love and poetry. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; 1 edition (June 12, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345479572
• ISBN-13: 978-0345479570
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #244,511 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FAR TOO GOOD TO MISS, June 30, 2007

By	Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

Every once in a great while along comes a book that I don't want to finish, simply because of the letdown when it ends. There's so much enjoyment in the reading - lush and evocative descriptions, graceful prose, characters that spring to life from black printed lines, undercurrents of mystery, an imaginary bridge between today and years long past, plus romance. So much to savor! In Carol Goodman's hands there is often the deft turn of a phrase, a telling detail capturing both eye and mind. Or, one finds a described scene more vivid than a painting.

An extraordinarily capable writer, this author blended all of the above into one remarkable book - The Sonnet Lover.

The bare bones of the plot: Rose Asher is a literary professor at New York's fictional Hudson College. As she notes, "The most thankless job on the planet may well be teaching Renaissance love poetry to a group of hormone-dazed adolescents." Nevertheless, there are other perks - she is involved in a love affair with Mark Abrams, the college president, and she has a star pupil - Robin Weiss who has written a prize winning film.

Sadly Robin's potential is not to be fulfilled as he falls to his death from a balcony following the interruption of a college party. Was it an accident, was he pushed?

To try to answer these questions Rose agrees to return to La Civetta, a Tuscan estate near Florence which has been loaned to Hudson College as a teaching institution. She joins Mark, other faculty members, and possible producers of a film who believe that Robin may have discovered a sonnet written by Shakespeare's mysterious Dark Lady. This is quite a cast - from Mark who begins to act strangely to Mara, the wife of the head of the film department, an always acquisitive buyer who finds the beauty of Tuscany in Hermes scarves.

Waiting at La Civetta is Bruno Brunelli, the first and greatest love of Rose's life. Waiting with him is his wife.

As said earlier, these are the "bare bones" of the plot. The reading pleasure is found in the way Goodman puts flesh on these bones. Sonnets woven throughout are by the author's husband, Lee Slonimsky. Granted, a pivotal meeting Rose "chances" to overhear in the church of Santa Margherita and the denouement do seem a bit contrived. But an author who writes as engagingly as Goodman is forgiven all.

As one who has never entered a bookstore she didn't love the overflow of books at our house falls into three categories: donations to libraries, loaners, and keepers.

The Sonnet Lover is most definitely a keeper!

- Gail Cooke

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "This house is stained with the blood of innocence.", July 18, 2007

By	E. Bukowsky "booklover10" (NY United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Carol Goodman's "The Sonnet Lover" is a literary thriller about lost manuscripts that are valuable enough to serve as a motive for murder. Thirty-nine year old Professor Rose Asher teaches comparative literature at Hudson College in New York. Her handsome and brilliant young student, Robin Weiss, has made a film that was shot in La Civetta, a Tuscan estate worth nearly a billion dollars. Its eccentric and flamboyant owner, Cyril Graham, has promised to bequeath his property to Hudson College to become a center for the performing arts.

Rose has bittersweet memories of her own stay in La Civetta when, as a nineteen-year old student, she had a passionate affair with her married professor, Bruno Brunelli. The relationship ended abruptly, Rose went on to pursue her successful academic career (she is a specialist in the Renaissance sonnet), and she now has another man in her life, college president Mark Adams. Suddenly, Robin's promising life ends when he falls off a balcony to his death. Was it murder, suicide, or a tragic accident? To find out, Rose revisits La Civetta along with Mark Adams, Gene Silverman (the head of the film department), and Leo Balthasar, a Hollywood producer who is planning to making a feature based on Shakespeare's sonnets. Says Leo, "Picture 'Shakespeare in love,' only steamier."

The book's premise is that in the sixteenth century, Shakespeare may have traveled to Italy to be with his lover, a poet named Ginevra de Laura, and perhaps his mysterious "Dark Lady." Ginevra's poems were lost and the skeptical Professor Asher insists there is no proof that Shakespeare ever set foot in Italy. "The Sonnet Lover" capitalizes on the popularity of historical mysteries featuring priceless documents and long-buried secrets. Goodman's well-researched novel is filled with lovely poetry, an exotic Italian setting, and intriguing speculation about Shakespeare's life. Professor Asher plays amateur sleuth as she pursues clues that may help her find Ginevra's poems. In addition, Rose rekindles her romance with Brunelli; although he is still married, Bruno claims to be separated from his aggressive wife, Claudia. He is fiercely protective of his son, Orlando, a gloomy young man who knew Robin Weiss well and bore a grudge against him.

Although Goodman is an intelligent and literate writer, "The Sonnet Lover" is not entirely successful. As the book progresses, its pace slows down considerably and the dialogue becomes increasingly stilted; there is a great deal of tedious exposition and too little action. By the time Rose learns the identity of the murderer and the numerous story lines are at last unraveled, some readers will have lost interest in the heavy-handed plot machinations. Although Goodman deserves credit for an ambitious effort, "The Sonnet Lover" ultimately falls short because of its overly cluttered and poorly constructed plot and its shallow characterizations.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "You'll remember it as the most beautiful season of your life.", June 18, 2007

By	Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Goodman once again exhibits her love for the subtle connections of history and lineage, a professor of comparative literature at New York's Hudson College, drawn into a Sixteenth century mystery centered in Tuscany. At issue are the missing sonnets of Genevra de Laura. If Rose Asher, who specializes in English and Italian Renaissance sonnets, can locate Genevra's missing work and make a critical historical link, her reputation will be assured. At issue is whether Shakespeare was in Italy in 1593, the London theaters closed because of the plague; it was during this period that he met and wrote of his elusive Dark Lady. Now thirty-nine, Asher remembers a summer at Tuscany's La Civetta villa twenty years earlier, where she suffered the pangs of an unfortunate love affair with a married man, fleeing back to New York and the halls of academia, where she has proven herself an expert in the sonnet.

Hudson College is poised to acquire the Tuscan villa and all its precious artifacts. Although she had planned a quiet summer, when Rose's favorite student dies suddenly, she decides to return to La Civetta in search of answers to the young man's untimely demise, hoping to discover the lost sonnets while confronting her failed romance. Bruno Brunelli, Asher's former lover, still teaches at the villa, his son is possibly implicated in the student's death. Mixing the present with sixteenth century Renaissance poets, playwrights and lovers, Goodman performs her usual magic, blending threads of the mysterious and tragic tale of Genevra de Laura with those who seek to uncover her secrets and tie her life to that of the prolific Shakespeare. But murder is afoot and no one can be trusted. The result is an eerie mystery, replete with villains and charlatans, spurned lovers and the youthful hubris of students in thrall to the old-world atmosphere of La Civetta.

The cast of characters is eclectic, from Rose's current romance, Mark Abrams, the president of Hudson College, to Bruno and his wife; from the greedy, mediocre academic and his shopping-addicted spouse to the current owner of the villa, who slyly observes the antics of his visitors while sipping absinthe. But the most fascinating characters remain shadowed in history, the ill-fated and low-born Genevra de Laura and the man who stole her most valuable possession, Lorenzo Barbagianni. Replete with the ornate beauty of Renaissance art, Genevra's world is tangible, fraught with danger and heartbreak, the lost sonnets crying for discovery. As is her habit, Goodman weaves a believable tapestry, often quite literally, the dark message of Genevra's fate finally revealed. Rich and resonant, the Bard and his Dark Lady speak across the centuries, recapturing a willing audience. Luan Gaines/2007.