"In the Company of the Courtesan" by Sarah Dunant

Title: In the Company of the Courtesan
Author: Sarah Dunant
Publisher: Random House (Hardcover)
Page: 371

My Rating: 5

Finally finished reading this wonderful book! After reading her other book "The Birth of Venus" I knew this would be another wonderful story and yes, it turned out to be right. It was fantastic, I absolutely loved it!

It's a story taking place in 16th century (Renaissance), first in Rome then to Venice... this was an intriguing book since I haven't read any book, well at least to my knowledge, on courtesans. I think I have seen movies but that also could be a mix-up. Anyhow, loved how the story was outlined. I loved the two main characters though I have to say I loved the narrator much more. It had it's twist and turns.

A partnership that does go so well like needle and string, however they do have their ups and downs. And La Draga a very interesting character in the novel, it would have been very different without her part.

The language that is used in the book is somewhat confusing since sometimes it's a bit to modern and somewhat vulgar at times and it does make me wonder if they really did use such language back in those days.

However, all in all, it was an excellent book and I did love the story that she laid out for us to picture in our minds.

I'm actually thinking of getting her other books, I think it's the private investigator Hannah Wolfe series. We'll see about that.


Some excerpt from the book
"... the more successful they are, the greater the danger: for, once life is comfortable, there is nothing to fear, nothing to fight for. Which means in turn that there is nothing to look forward to. Which, in a strange way, can make one think more keenly of death and yearn for some way of standing out against it, some hunge for an extravagance of feeling bigger even than death itself."

"... all fever has exhilaration inside its delirium, and fire consumes more than it warms. In the end there will be only ashes..."

"It is not what you might find there that scares you. You are too clever to enjoy the contempt that is shown toward you here and your appetite is, I think, too big to be agraid of new things. No. I think it is the sadness of who you would leave behind that stops you."