Leonardo's Swans: A Novel (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: treasure tower, sss sss sss sss sss, Bianca Giovanna, Duke of Milan, Santa Maria (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sexual and political intrigue drive Essex's intricate novel (after previous historicals Kleopatra and Pharaoh) starring 15th-century Italian sisters Isabella and Beatrice d'Este. Isabella, the elder, more accomplished sister, is engaged to handsome Francesco Gonzaga, a minor aristocrat, while Beatrice is intended for the future duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, who's powerful, unscrupulous and already in possession of a pregnant mistress. It seems, at first, that Isabella will enjoy domesticity with Francesco, while unhappy Beatrice is useful to her husband only as a vehicle for breeding sons—a situation further complicated by Ludovico's infatuation with the more beautiful Isabella. While Isabella encourages her brother-in-law's overtures, she's actually desperate to sit for his resident artist, Leonardo da Vinci. The sisters' sexual rivalry provides the main fodder for the novel's first half; the less compelling remainder is taken up with the political complexities of Renaissance Italy, as the rulers of France scheme to invade Italy, Francesco schemes against Ludovico, and Ludovico schemes against everyone. Essex's canvas is too finely detailed to adequately represent the epic dramas of warring Italian princes, and occasional anachronisms in diction are distracting. But the stories of Isabella and Beatrice d'Este along with the occasional investigations of Leonardo's artworks, methods and personality are always engrossing. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From The Washington Post

Like pretty much everything else in the universe, historical fiction can be divided into two categories. On the one hand are books, like Neal Stephenson's "Baroque Cycle," that use real historical events and people as a springboard for the author's imagined events and people. On the other hand are novels, like William Safire's Scandalmonger, that limit their scope to characters and events from the archives. I strongly favor books of the first kind and shy away from the second. History -- fortunately -- tends to make for great history. Reality, however, does not necessarily make for great fiction.

Karen Essex's Leonardo's Swans fits firmly in the second category of rigidly historical fiction, and while it is in many ways accomplished, it also suffers from almost unavoidable drawbacks. The novel centers on two sisters in late 15th-century Italy: Isabella and Beatrice d'Este of Ferrara. As the book opens, the sisters prepare for marriage: the beautiful Isabella to the handsome Francesco Gonzaga, and the tomboyish Beatrice to the rakish and scheming Ludovico Sforza, regent to the duke of Milan. Isabella is very happy with this arrangement. Francesco may not be the most influential man in Italy, but he's a looker and an important soldier. Ludovico, however, is reputed (the girls have never seen him) to be ancient (nearly 40), dissolute and morally repulsive.

Isabella, however, is in for a surprise. While she finds passion in her marriage to Francesco, she is obsessively attracted to Ludovico, who is all the bad things said about him. Keeping his nephew, the true duke of Milan, besotted with drink and boy-buggery, he schemes to hold on to power and envisions Milan as a great artistic capital. Central to Isabella's interest in Ludovico is his court artist, Leonardo da Vinci, whose unusual and wide-ranging talent Isabella recognizes. His art, she decides, will be celebrated forever, and she wants her beauty immortalized in one of his works, a desire that leads to sisterly complication, as does Isabella's seduction of her sister's husband.

This rivalry between the sisters stands at the heart of the novel's first and most interesting section. Isabella's desire to position herself as a major figure in Italian culture and in her brother-in-law's bedroom generates some exciting scenes. Similarly, Beatrice's efforts to come to terms with her husband's daring and conniving nature make for engaging reading. Yet all too soon the sisters retreat to significantly less dramatic roles. Beatrice and her husband find love, with Ludovico's mistress amicably sidelined. Isabella ends her affair with Ludovico, but not her efforts to model for his great artist.

Leonardo's character is one of the great surprises of this book, and in portraying him the author never seems to engage in post-Dan Brown opportunism. The reader may be constantly reminded of Leonardo's genius, but he is an understated figure, a brilliant but disorganized mind whose twitchy intelligence makes him interested in starting countless projects but able to finish few. One of the pleasures of reading this book is learning the secret history behind paintings like "The Last Supper" and "The Virgin of the Rocks."

But Essex's adherence to the archival record hinders the book in two principal ways. She sticks closely to known events but seems unwilling to engage with the issue of historical subjectivity. Never do we feel as if we are inside the heads of pre-Enlightenment people. These are not alien women from another time; they are modern women in another time. Similarly, as the novel becomes more focused on the political machinations of the era, it disconnects itself from the experiences of the two protagonists. The historical Isabella and Beatrice may have been proximate to men who shaped some of the major events of Renaissance Italy, but they were rarely witness to them. Despite some excellent writing and archival work, the result feels sometimes like a history play in which characters come on stage to announce births, deaths and the outcomes of far-away battles. Indeed, as Leonardo's Swans marches along, driven by facts rather than the necessities of storytelling, the novel often takes on a strangely resigned tone, as if it's just running out the clock.

Reviewed by David Liss
Copyright 2006, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Anchor (January 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767923065
• ISBN-13: 978-0767923064
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #80,248 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HISTORICAL FICTION AT ITS FINEST MAKES GREAT LISTENING, January 24, 2006

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

This review is from: Leonardo's Swans (Audio CD)

Historical fiction at its finest aptly describes "Leonardo's Swans," which is rich in period detail and court intrigue. A voice performance at its finest is also an appropriate description of Elizabeth Sartre's narration. She brings alive the longings and loves of two sisters in Renaissance Italy.

Ferrara is home to Isabella and Beatrice. They're close together in age but miles apart in personality. "Beatrice is a puzzle to Isabella, a fact that the older sister blames on the girl's unsupervised upbringing in wild Naples."

Isabella is engaged to Francesco, while the younger Beatrice will wed Ludovico, the future Duke of Milan. These marriages had been arranged when the girls were 5 and 6 years of age. It little mattered at the time which girl would be wed to which man as long as the match was beneficial for the city-state of Ferrara.

In later life the girls will be rivals as Isabella catches the eye of Ludovico, a man lacking in morals with a beautiful mistress, to say nothing of being her brother-in-law. He may have met his match in the ambitious Isabella who would use him so that his court painter, Leonardo da Vinci, might capture her image in oils.

These maneuverinsg are set against the plotting of France's rulers to invade Italy. Essex depicts the Renaissance with all its ribaldry and rivalry - wonderful listening!

- Gail Cooke

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting read, January 16, 2006

By	V. Jordan (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Leonardo's Swans: A Novel (Hardcover)

Since the beginning of recorded history, and undoubtedly prior to that, sex and politics have always been intertwined. Throw art, the quest for fame and immortality, and sibling rivalry into the mix, and you have the ingredients of Leonardo's Swans, a novel about the intense and treacherous court of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, the patron under whom Leonardo da Vinci created most of his important works. The story is mainly about two aristocratic sisters, Beatrice and Isabella d'Este, the latter of whom became the major art collector of her day. Beatrice married the Duke of Milan, but Isabella always felt that Beatrice had stolen her fate. To compensate, Isabella was determined to have herself immortalized in oil by the great Leonardo da Vinci. But Beatrice, who was aware that Isabella had designs on her husband too, had other plans for her sister. This is a rivalry literally to the death between two women who basically love each other, but who have been pitted against each other by their own need for the attentions of the most powerful men in the courts of Europe and by the political ambitions of their husbands and father. Leonardo da Vinci is the prize at the end of their quest, but the artist proves to be even more elusive than power itself. This is a pretty wild ride of a story, but at the end, in the author's notes, you find out that it's all true! The characters in the book really are the women in Leonardo's paintings. The notes at the end even tell you where to go to see the originals.

By the way, I am an architect, and I really enjoyed the detailed and accurate descriptions of the churches, palaces, and monuments of the period. I've always felt that Milan's historic architecture has taken a back seat to Florence for far too long.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A haunting evocation of the Renaissance, June 5, 2006

By	C. W. Gortner "Author of THE LAST QUEEN and T... (San Francisco, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Leonardo's Swans: A Novel (Hardcover)

(This review first appeared in the May 2006 issue of The Historical Novels Review, Editor's Choice)

Leonardo da Vinci has become quite popular these days, as has the historical novel featuring an intrepid woman ahead of her time, with an abiding interest in Art. Doubleday is clearly capitalizing on these facts in marketing Karen Essex's novel, LEONARDO'S SWANS. The strategy will undoubtedly sell books, but it does not begin to do justice to Essex's haunting account of the sibling rivalry between two princesses of the Renaissance--Isabella d'Este, Duchess of Mantua, and her younger sister, Beatrice, wife of Il Moro, Duke of Milan. Told from the eyes of both sisters, the novel starts with deceptive superficiality, as the elegantly adept Isabella engages in a competitive battle for supremacy with the wilder and less intellectually accomplished Beatrice. Through a mere matter of poor timing, Beatrice has wed a more powerful and intellectually stimulating man--an event that perplexes Isabella, for how can the vagaries of fortune have allowed someone of Beatrice's pedestrian aspirations to seize the prize that is Milan? Moreover, Milan commands the genius of Leonardo da Vinci, acclaimed court painter and engineer to Il Moro. Determined to outshine her sister, Isabella sets herself to be immortalized by Leonardo's brush, while Beatrice steers a resolute course to wealth and power. But larger political concerns soon overwhelm the oblivious self-aggrandizement and foibles of these Renaissance sisters. Both are tested to their limits and beyond, compelled to discover an inner strength that will ultimately exalt one and destroy the other. Threaded within their story is Leonardo's relentless pursuit for knowledge and reverence for the fragility of life, which elevates him from the ambitions of those he most serve. Despite a sometimes-distracting mix of past and present tense, this is a rare novel that captures an era of unparalleled personality, the like of which shall never be seen again.