“The Black Lily” is ahistorical novel based in 18th century Florence. Amongst the backdrop of the Roman CatholicChurch and the feared Inquisition is a young Italian woman of seemingly poorcircumstance whose fate it is to fall in love with a man who carries highambitions for himself in the Catholic Church.
Superbly written in theold classic literary style, with wonderfully portrayed characters and detaileddescriptions, this is a splendidly narrated tale. Written in the first person,the protagonist, Chiara, is treated as a poor servant girl and is seeminglyenslaved at the hands of tyrannical nuns and Catholic guilt. She has fallenupon hard times, finding herself involved in the intrigues and debaucheries ofthe period. The first part of the bookis a delightful, fascinating and informative read, building-up to the amorous adventures which come into play as Chiara matures muchlater on, when the affair with the man she loves leads to a very emotive outcome.
This is a dark,passionate tale which contains a whole wealth of ingredients: scandal; romance; injustice; cruelty; torture; murder;fear; passion…but over-riding it all is theinfallible ability of the human spirit to overcome adversity. This book is so authentically and beautifullywritten by this most erudite of writers that it cannot fail but delight itsreaders.
