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alundeberg's review against another edition
3.0
Sometimes there are just too many people invited to the party and one loses sight of the guest of honor. In this case, Vittoria Colonna, the author's subject, takes up probably less than half of the book as much time is spent describing other people and events. Normally that's not a problem, but this is Renaissance Italy with its countless popes, Medicis, Borgias, Sforzas, Henrys, Charles, Alexanders, Alessandros, Ferrara, Ferrante, and the list goes on. It's dense. And there are no maps. And as one heading into summer break with other dense books to read, I felt like I was heading into a reading slump--where I don't want to read anything.
This is not to say that Vittoria Colonna is not an interesting woman. She was Italy's first famous female poet and knew lots of interesting people and people really valued what she had to say. Not too shabby for that time period. Granted, she wrote years' worth of poems to her dead husband to work through her grief-- of losing a man who was constantly unfaithful to her and then she wanted to become a nun in one of the strictest orders around even though she was beyond wealthy and had newfound independence in her widowhood. She fasted and flagellated herself. So, I don't quite understand Vittoria Colonna or her motives. Ramie Targoff also has hard time understanding her motives as it seems everyone lost Vittoria's letters, so what Vittoria wanted has to be gleamed from the responses she received. This makes it hard to know her as a person. One thing that we do have in common is trying to live life the way we want. She wished to be a nun; the Pope said no (it seemed he had personal and political reasons to do so). She worked with him in order to create a space for her to observe her faith. She did other things to, like become friends with Michelangelo, but I stopped reading before I got to that part, because watching TV became more engaging. I am okay not knowing what happened. One of the problems for me is that the players discussed are described more by what they did rather than who they were and what their personalities were like. It was challenging to remember who did what and why, and the continual onslaught of new characters made it even more challenging. I can handle a challenging read, but this one just didn't have the heart for me.
This is not to say that Vittoria Colonna is not an interesting woman. She was Italy's first famous female poet and knew lots of interesting people and people really valued what she had to say. Not too shabby for that time period. Granted, she wrote years' worth of poems to her dead husband to work through her grief-- of losing a man who was constantly unfaithful to her and then she wanted to become a nun in one of the strictest orders around even though she was beyond wealthy and had newfound independence in her widowhood. She fasted and flagellated herself. So, I don't quite understand Vittoria Colonna or her motives. Ramie Targoff also has hard time understanding her motives as it seems everyone lost Vittoria's letters, so what Vittoria wanted has to be gleamed from the responses she received. This makes it hard to know her as a person. One thing that we do have in common is trying to live life the way we want. She wished to be a nun; the Pope said no (it seemed he had personal and political reasons to do so). She worked with him in order to create a space for her to observe her faith. She did other things to, like become friends with Michelangelo, but I stopped reading before I got to that part, because watching TV became more engaging. I am okay not knowing what happened. One of the problems for me is that the players discussed are described more by what they did rather than who they were and what their personalities were like. It was challenging to remember who did what and why, and the continual onslaught of new characters made it even more challenging. I can handle a challenging read, but this one just didn't have the heart for me.
critterbee's review against another edition
3.0
Renaissance Woman is the long overdue biography of Vittoria Colonna, a woman who can not really be described accurately in a single sentence. She was a poetess, a much sought after literary critic, a friend to Michelangelo, a devout Catholic yet much interested in Protestantism. Through friendship with political powers, she had some political influence. She inspired other women to write and attempt publication.
Thanks to the author the thorough research, and for telling the story of Vittoria.
*eARC Netgalley*
Thanks to the author the thorough research, and for telling the story of Vittoria.
*eARC Netgalley*
alundeberg's review
3.0
Sometimes there are just too many people invited to the party and one loses sight of the guest of honor. In this case, Vittoria Colonna, the author's subject, takes up probably less than half of the book as much time is spent describing other people and events. Normally that's not a problem, but this is Renaissance Italy with its countless popes, Medicis, Borgias, Sforzas, Henrys, Charles, Alexanders, Alessandros, Ferrara, Ferrante, and the list goes on. It's dense. And there are no maps. And as one heading into summer break with other dense books to read, I felt like I was heading into a reading slump--where I don't want to read anything.
This is not to say that Vittoria Colonna is not an interesting woman. She was Italy's first famous female poet and knew lots of interesting people and people really valued what she had to say. Not too shabby for that time period. Granted, she wrote years' worth of poems to her dead husband to work through her grief-- of losing a man who was constantly unfaithful to her and then she wanted to become a nun in one of the strictest orders around even though she was beyond wealthy and had newfound independence in her widowhood. She fasted and flagellated herself. So, I don't quite understand Vittoria Colonna or her motives. Ramie Targoff also has hard time understanding her motives as it seems everyone lost Vittoria's letters, so what Vittoria wanted has to be gleamed from the responses she received. This makes it hard to know her as a person. One thing that we do have in common is trying to live life the way we want. She wished to be a nun; the Pope said no (it seemed he had personal and political reasons to do so). She worked with him in order to create a space for her to observe her faith. She did other things to, like become friends with Michelangelo, but I stopped reading before I got to that part, because watching TV became more engaging. I am okay not knowing what happened. One of the problems for me is that the players discussed are described more by what they did rather than who they were and what their personalities were like. It was challenging to remember who did what and why, and the continual onslaught of new characters made it even more challenging. I can handle a challenging read, but this one just didn't have the heart for me.
This is not to say that Vittoria Colonna is not an interesting woman. She was Italy's first famous female poet and knew lots of interesting people and people really valued what she had to say. Not too shabby for that time period. Granted, she wrote years' worth of poems to her dead husband to work through her grief-- of losing a man who was constantly unfaithful to her and then she wanted to become a nun in one of the strictest orders around even though she was beyond wealthy and had newfound independence in her widowhood. She fasted and flagellated herself. So, I don't quite understand Vittoria Colonna or her motives. Ramie Targoff also has hard time understanding her motives as it seems everyone lost Vittoria's letters, so what Vittoria wanted has to be gleamed from the responses she received. This makes it hard to know her as a person. One thing that we do have in common is trying to live life the way we want. She wished to be a nun; the Pope said no (it seemed he had personal and political reasons to do so). She worked with him in order to create a space for her to observe her faith. She did other things to, like become friends with Michelangelo, but I stopped reading before I got to that part, because watching TV became more engaging. I am okay not knowing what happened. One of the problems for me is that the players discussed are described more by what they did rather than who they were and what their personalities were like. It was challenging to remember who did what and why, and the continual onslaught of new characters made it even more challenging. I can handle a challenging read, but this one just didn't have the heart for me.
josephb8694's review
2.0
I picked up this book because of what appeared like a rave review in the Wall Street Journal and because I had read Isaacson's Da Vinci and wanted to learn more about the Italian Renaissance period. With Schama's "Embarrassment of Riches", the sweeping overview of the Dutch Renaissance history and art, I hoped this book would help round out the picture. In some ways it did and in others it was a disappointment.
First the kudos. The author did a huge amount of research, uncovering and linking together resources from many disparate sources. You learn how the Catholic church in Italy reacted to Martin Luther's Reformation, the repeated conflicts and relationships between the Holy Roman Empire, France, Spain and England, relationships of Italian city-states and, of course, the uniqueness of Vittoria Colonna, a poet, arbitrator, wife and widow and religious activist.
Unfortunately, the author failed to give me a way of relating to Colonna, the person. The book was laden with facts, people, places, excerpts from poems but we're not offered a way for sharing Colonna's feelings as she went through her interesting life. When you read some books on historical subjects you can actually envision it being made into a movie or serial. Not in this case.
First the kudos. The author did a huge amount of research, uncovering and linking together resources from many disparate sources. You learn how the Catholic church in Italy reacted to Martin Luther's Reformation, the repeated conflicts and relationships between the Holy Roman Empire, France, Spain and England, relationships of Italian city-states and, of course, the uniqueness of Vittoria Colonna, a poet, arbitrator, wife and widow and religious activist.
Unfortunately, the author failed to give me a way of relating to Colonna, the person. The book was laden with facts, people, places, excerpts from poems but we're not offered a way for sharing Colonna's feelings as she went through her interesting life. When you read some books on historical subjects you can actually envision it being made into a movie or serial. Not in this case.
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