The Pope's Daughter: A Novel of Lucrezia Borgia

Lucrezia Borgia is one of the most vilified women in modern history. The daughter of a notorious pope, she was twice betrothed before the age of eleven and thrice married--one husband was forced to declare himself impotent and thereby unfit and another was murdered by Lucrezia's own brother, Cesar Borgia. She is cast in the role of murderess, temptress, incestuous lover, loose woman, femme fatale par excellence.

But there are two sides to every story.

Lucrezia Borgia is the only woman in history to have serve as the head of the Catholic Church. She successfully administered several of Renaissance Italy's most thriving cities, founded one of the world's first credit unions, and was a generous patron of the arts. She was mother to a prince and to a cardinal. She was a devoted wife to the Prince of Ferrara, and the lover of the poet Pietro Bembo. She was a child of the renaissance and, in many ways, the world's first modern woman.
In this richly imagined novel, Nobel laureate Dario Fo reveals Lucrezia's humanity, her passion for life, her compassion for others, and her skill at navigating around her family's evildoings. The Borgias are unrivalled for the range and magnitude of their political machinations and opportunism. Fo's brilliance rests in his rendering their story as a shocking mirror image of the uses and abuses of power in our own time. Lucrezia herself becomes a model for how to survive and rise above those abuses. Part Wolf Hall, part House of Cards, The Pope's Daugther will appeal to readers of historical fiction and of contemporary fiction alike and will delight anyone fascinated by Renaissance Italy.

Author: Dario Fo
Publisher: Europa Editions
Published: 08/04/2015
Pages: 241
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.20h x 5.30w x 0.90d
ISBN13: 9781609452742
ISBN10: 1609452747
BISAC Categories:
- Fiction | Historical | General
- Fiction | Biographical
- Fiction | Religious | General

About the Author
Born near Laggo Maggiore in Italy in 1926, Dario Fo is an actor, playwright, comedian, director, songwriter and political campaigner. His first one-act play was produced in 1958 and since then he has written, directed and acted in over forty plays and theatrical productions. In 1997 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In the words of the Nobel Prize committee: "He if anyone merits the epithet of jester in the true meaning of that word. With a blend of laughter and gravity he opens our eyes to abuses and injustices in society and also the wider historical perspective in which they can be placed." The Pope's Daughter is his first novel.

Antony Shugaar's translations for Europa Editions include the Commissario Ricciardi novels by Maurizio de Giovanni, For Grace Received by Valeria Parrella, Fabio Bartolomei's Alfa Romeo 1300 and Other Miracles, and Marghertia Dolce Vita by Stefano Benni.