![]() Isabella came across as shallow and irritating – which, I'm fairly sure, historically, she was not. They are constantly worrying about who is more beautiful than whom, who their husbands are sleeping with, and even Isabella's main goal of being painted by Da Vinci is equal parts vanity and desire to ‘get one over' on her sister. Both focus on the two sisters, Beatrice and Isabella d'Este, who were prominent players in the Renaissance courts of Italy's late 15th century (and were patrons to Leonardo Da Vinci and many other artists of the day.) But while Ennis portrays these women as the well-educated, powerful, and savvy politicians that they likely were (without sacrificing a strong element of personal drama), Essex has the women be much more motivated by personal jealousy and vanity – their connivings are shown as more petty games than far-sighted political moves. Although, I believe, factually accurate, Essex's book is much less flattering to her characters, I believe. ![]() but feeling that everything, has, somehow, changed. ![]() So reading this book was almost like re-reading ‘Duchess'. ![]() Reading this recent historical fiction novel was a very strange experience – it's based on the same historical facts as another book, ‘Duchess of Milan' by Michael Ennis – which I love. ![]()
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