Light on Lucrezia

Name: Light on Lucrezia
Rating: 3.84 (1710 reviews)

by Jean Plaidy Book 2 in the A Novel of the Borgias series.

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3.8(1,710)

Lucrezia Borgia enters the next stage of her life under the shadow of a family whose power rests on Pope Alexander VI and the ruthless ambitions of Cesare Borgia. Marriage is repeatedly used as an instrument of policy, while scandal and violence follow the Borgias through Renaissance Italy. Plaidy presents Lucrezia between dynastic obedience and personal survival, questioning the lurid reputation that made her a symbol of poison, incest and corruption.

Lucrezia’s later life in Ferrara provides a contrast with the Roman scandals attached to her family name. There she must build a position inside a new dynasty while the deaths and political failures of her relatives alter the meaning of being a Borgia. The novel uses that transition to question how far her notorious reputation reflects her own actions rather than the ambitions of Alexander and Cesare.