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Margaret F. Rosenthal

The Honest Courtesan: Veronica Franco, Citizen and Writer in Sixteenth-Century Venice (Women in Culture and Society) Paperback – February 1, 1993

by Margaret F. Rosenthal (Author)

103 ratings

3.8 on Goodreads

416 ratings

Part of: Women in Culture and Society (19 books)

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The Venetian courtesan has long captured the imagination as a female symbol of sexual license, elegance, beauty, and unruliness. What then to make of the cortigiana onesta—the honest courtesan who recast virtue as intellectual integrity and offered wit and refinement in return for patronage and a place in public life? Veronica Franco (1546-1591) was such a woman, a writer and citizen of Venice, whose published poems and familiar letters offer rich testimony to the complexity of the honest courtesan's position.

Margaret F. Rosenthal draws a compelling portrait of Veronica Franco in her cultural social, and economic world. Rosenthal reveals in Franco's writing a passionate support of defenseless women, strong convictions about inequality, and, in the eroticized language of her epistolary verses, the seductive political nature of all poetic contests. It is Veronica Franco's insight into the power conflicts between men and women—and her awareness of the threat she posed to her male contemporaries—that makes her literary works and her dealings with Venetian intellectuals so pertinent today.

Combining the resources of biography, history, literary theory, and cultural criticism, this sophisticated interdisciplinary work presents an eloquent and often moving account of one woman's life as an act of self-creation and as a complex response to social forces and cultural conditions.

"A book . . . pleasurably redolent of Venice in the 16th-century. Rosenthal gives a vivid sense of a world of salons and coteries, of intricate networks of family and patronage, and of literary exchanges both intellectual and erotic."—Helen Hackett, Times Higher Education Supplement

The Honest Courtesan is the basis for the film Dangerous Beauty (1998) directed by Marshall Herskovitz. (The film was re-titled The Honest Courtesan for release in the UK and Europe in 1999.)

Print length

408 pages
Language

English
Publisher

University of Chicago Press
Publication date

February 1, 1993
Dimensions

8.99 x 6.09 x 1.07 inches
ISBN-10

0226728129
ISBN-13

978-0226728124
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Chicago Press; 1st edition (February 1, 1993)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 408 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0226728129
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0226728124
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.38 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.99 x 6.09 x 1.07 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #863,766 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,013 in Italian History (Books)
- #3,158 in Women in History
- #6,331 in Women's Studies (Books)

Customer Reviews:
103 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

103 global ratings

5 star		65%
4 star		14%
3 star		9%
2 star		5%
1 star		7%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Janis Hearn

Not as expected

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 3, 2022

Verified Purchase

Little disappointing. I love research, indexes and bibliographies but seems they took up half the book.

Helpful

Falendri

terrible writing- an absolute chore to read - seeped in bias

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 24, 2022

Verified Purchase

So this will not be a pleasure to read. It's cumbersome - and beats every fact to death until you forget what point she was trying to make. Definitely slanted towards hating the white male - victimizing females - blaming not solving or accepting personal responsibility. I am the biggest fan of Veronica Franco on this planet. I find the facts and excerpts intriguing and helpful. The research is obvious and as a "history" degree holder - I appreciate all the work that went into this compilation. But the writing style is - well - like a doctoral thesis. The introduction is TEN full pages. Someone likes to hear themselves talk. I picture the author and her scholarly friends sitting in a room and congratulating themselves on this piece of work - while the everyday citizen of the world says..."oh ho hum - what was the point? moving on....."

Helpful

tmd

Scholarly account of a Dangerous Beauty

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 17, 2014

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Written as a scholarly account of the life of Veronica Franco. Some may find the reading a bit dry, but there is a lot of information in this book that gives us insight into the world that Franco lived in and the attitudes towards courtesans during the 16th century. Very, very interesting. I am grateful to the author for providing translations of many of Veronica's written works, including letters and poems. Veronica was quite a woman for her time. If you want to know the true story of this Dangerous Beauty (after seeing the Hollywood production of her life), this is where you will find it.

11 people found this helpful

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Ele Pranaityte

but most of stuff ran out of print in like 1985, so good luck getting any

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 12, 2017

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This book is unreadable. There is hardly any chronology of Veronica's life presented, the author writes as if the reader is familiar with Veronica very well. The main focus of the book is translations of Veronica's writings from Italian into English and then the author paraphrases them again for whatever reason it may be. It is a study of Veronica's writings but not her life and times, so it is wrongly described on the cover and on this website. If you want to really find out more about Venice of her time, there are lists of book that make up 1/3 of this book, but most of stuff ran out of print in like 1985, so good luck getting any. I am glad I bought it second hand because it is not worth the full price. I am now looking into reselling it.

8 people found this helpful

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Rodolfo Partida_R.

Well documented academic work.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 13, 2019

Verified Purchase

A serious study, but do not expect a novel; it's an academic work.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 24, 2013

Verified Purchase

Great book, wonderful to read about feminism from so long ago! True feminism (in my eyes) is never acting like a man, or expecting to be treated like a man; but rather embracing your feminity and strength and mind and using each piece to become the person you were meant to be all on your own. And Veronica Franco did that. I highly recommend the book, and even the movie "Dangerous Beauty."

2 people found this helpful

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BaRkiNg MaD

An Interesting Text Book, But...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 1, 2014

Verified Purchase

I bought this hoping it would have more of Veronica Franco's poetry and be somewhat more biographical. As I am not a Women's Studies student, I had to pick through much of the dissertation to get to what I really wanted to know about this fascinating woman's life. It's almost impossible to find anything for the non-student about Veronica Franco. Since that is the case, this book will have to do...for now.

4 people found this helpful

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Earl Cherry Jr

Wonderful insight into the world of 16th century Venice

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 10, 2015

Verified Purchase

Wonderful insight into the world of 16th century Venice. A bit on the scholarly side, but still entertaining. Read it and then see the movie Dangerous Beauty, or vice versa. One really complements the other.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Roman Clodia

First full account of Veronica Franco in English

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on April 10, 2009

Verified Purchase

Veronica Franco, beautiful Venetian courtesan and accomplished poet, may be best known as Catherine McCormack's character in the film Dangerous Beauty [DVD] [1998 ]. However, the real woman was far more provocative, challenging and engaging than anything the film could imagine.

Rosenthal takes a wide view and places Franco within her historical, cultural, literary and economic milieu with breathless ease and fine judgement. Not a biography, although it does include biographical elements (such as they can be retrieved), not a book of literary criticism, not a history book, it combines elements of all these to give us a three-dimensional view not just of Franco but of the possibility for Venetian women to subvert the rules and pressures of Venetian patriachism.

Although this does contain examples of Franco's writings, it would be best read alongside the collection edited by Rosenthal Poems and Selected Letters (Other Voice in Early Modern Europe) .

Franco is a fascinating woman, and Rosenthal does a fine job of making her accessible to a non-Italian audience.

11 people found this helpful

Amazon Reader

Fascinating

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 7, 2019

Verified Purchase

Excellent insight into her life although it was a bit too weighted towards literary criticism for my
liking. I was more interested in this remarkable woman’s life.

crocnaz

Great Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 20, 2014

Verified Purchase

Beautifully written account of a truly talented Courtesan. Rosenthal's vivid description of the era and circumstances surrounding her life are also very interesting.

3 people found this helpful

GingerT

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 29, 2018

Verified Purchase

Arrived two days earlier than expected. Thanks

donall de roiste

but still an excellent read. Well worth it

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 30, 2017

Verified Purchase