Sacred Hearts
For most of the noble women residing in the convent at Santa Caterina, life in this Renaissance holy place is a tranquil blessing. One new inmate, however, is not so grateful. Serafina, a 16-year-old girl from an aristocratic family, rages from the very first moment of her incarceration; Suora...
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For most of the noble women residing in the convent at Santa Caterina, life in this Renaissance holy place is a tranquil blessing. One new inmate, however, is not so grateful. Serafina, a 16-year-old girl from an aristocratic family, rages from the very first moment of her incarceration; Suora Zuana, the dispensary mistress, is obliged to sedate her soon after her arrival. Thus begins a complicated, evolving relationship, one that eventually ensnares other women in this erstwhile sanctuary. An intricate microcosm; a carefully constructed historical novel.
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Format: audiobook
ISBN:
9780739325087 (0739325086)
Publish date: July 14th 2009
Publisher: Random House Audio
Edition language: English
Category:
Novels,
Literature,
Cultural,
Italy,
Book Club,
Adult Fiction,
Historical Fiction,
Romance,
Adult,
Religion,
Womens,
16th Century
Low-key. Mostly inner-monologuing from the main character. I liked the atmosphere, and the uh...slice-of-life-ishness about nuns? All the characters were women, which was cool.
By the second half of the sixteenth century, the price of wedding dowries had risen so sharply within Catholic Europe that most noble families could not afford to marry off more than one daughter. The remaining young women were dispatched -- for a much lesser price -- to convents. Historians estimat...
bookshelves: radio-4x, italy, roman-catholic, religion, published-2009, medieval5c-16c, period-piece Recommended for: BBC Radio Listeners Read from March 27 to April 06, 2014 Sunday 30th March 2014 at 06:00 Episode 1/2: Sixteen-year-old Serafina is locked in the convent of Santa Caterina. Drama...
http://www.bostonbibliophile.com/2009/07/review-sacred-hearts-by-sarah-dunant.html
This story of a convent in 16th century Italy really gripped me from start to finish. It's about power really; the power of a girl's family to put her away against her will, the power of the Church and the struggles for control within the convent itself.Whenever I read or see anything about nuns I i...
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