The Italian Garden - Hardcover

A richly detailed historical romance, set in Renaissance Italy and France, from the author of Till the Day Goes Down (1992). Joanna Zulian, daughter of an itinerant Venetian herbalist and a Spanish mother, is 13 when her mother dies and her father commends her to the care of his brother, an established painter in Venice. Joanna becomes an apprentice in his studio, and shows talent, but she's prevented from developing it because of her sex. And so she turns her creative passion to gardening. Meanwhile, in Brittany, young Toby Dubreton is growing to manhood with his adoptive parents. Toby learns that he may be the bastard child of the noble du Chantonnay family, who occupy the opulent nearby estate, Marigny. But be that as it may, he has to make his own way, and he becomes a successful mercenary soldier in the conflict breaking out between Italy and France. In Venice he meets Joanna, and they are instantly drawn to each other. Fate parts them, however, and throws her into a terrible marriage. The strands of her life and Toby's will cross, interweave, separate and meet again throughout the novel, and suspense builds as the two seem doomed to keep missing each other. Eventually, Joanna finds her way into Brittany after leaving her husband and becoming the mistress of the brother of the lord of Marigny. The estate exerts a magnetic pull on both her and Toby, and throws them into conflict with the dastardly Hamon de Bohun, who will go to any lengths to possess the land--and Joanna. A few anachronisms (these 16th-century characters speak of their ``relationships'' and of being ``sidetracked'') undermine confidence in the historical fidelity here. But, overall, an involving story with some vivid scenery and costumery. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Subtly feminist and quite literate, this historical romance follows the entwined 16th-century lives of artistic, independent beauty Joanna Zulian and haunted, ambitious mercenary Toby Crow. After her mother dies, young, half-wild Joanna is left with her father's brother, a proper Venetian artist. Though she becomes a talented painter in her own right, she is thwarted by her gender. Her looks prove both boon and bane, dragging her into ever-higher social circles and attracting men who will see in her variously a muse, lover, pawn and obsession. Joanna later memorializes their emotions in the eponymous garden, which she divides into four squares planted with flowers appropriate to jealous, passionate, tender and obsessive love. Toby tries to escape his tormented past by becoming a soldier of fortune, but only Joanna's re-entry into his life and a surprising discovery about his birth can finally exorcise his demons. Lennox ( Till the Day Goes Down ) has a fine sense for the details of daily Renaissance life and its political, psychological and philosophical underpinnings; she also develops and employs secondary characters with admirable skill. A cut above the genre norm, this is a good choice for readers with better-than-average taste.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.