However, at times I felt like I was reading a dramatized history textbook. On the other hand, this allowed us to see the bigger picture outside the personal dramas of the family, shedding light upon the political turmoil in other parts of Europe. This also made the novel feel more emphatic towards historical events rather than the characters, when I usually prefer it to be the other way around. This last point wasn’t much helped by the long sections of historical context and fact-dumping that were pervasive throughout the chapters, bogging down many parts of this book. On the downside, because we don’t get to focus on any one POV for long, the connections the reader has with the characters also feel impersonal and distant.

In getting to know the thoughts and feelings of all the characters in this novel, Sarah Dunant managed to convey the sweeping influence of the Borgias and acquaint us with practically everyone in the family. With scandals and rumors aplenty, this was an eventful decade for the notorious family, but also for the rest of Europe as well with their wars and ruthless politics.įirst of all, I think that the author made a very brave choice when it came to using the third person omniscient point of view to narrate the story, even though there were both positive and negative sides to this. Hence, this book.īlood & Beauty focuses the Borgia family roughly between the years of 1492 when patriarch Rodrigo Borgia first began his papacy as Pope Alexander VI, and 1502 when his daughter Lucrezia Borgia married her third husband Alfonso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara. I admittedly will do this for any interesting looking books about European royals or powerful families, especially those related to either the Tudors or the Borgias. Blood & Beauty: The Borgias by Sarah DunantĪs you know, every once in a while I will find myself veering from my usual pattern of reading mostly sci-fi and fantasy and venture into the realm of historical fiction.

Blood and beauty the borgias