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The Deadly Sisterhood
The Deadly Sisterhood: A Story of Women, Power, and Intrigue in the Italian Renaissance, 1427-1527.
Hardcover
First published November 22, 2012
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About the author
Leonie Frieda
4 books90 followersSwedish by birth, but educated in Britain, Germany and France, Leonie Frieda speaks five languages. Her researches on Catherine de Medici has taken her to Paris, Florence and Rome, as well as the châteaux of the Loire. Her next book is a biography of the Great War soldier and letter-writer Edward Horner. She lives in London with her daughter Elisabeth and son Jake.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
December 2, 2014
I was so excited to get my hands on this book. It seemed to be right up my alley: a study of eight aristocratic women and how their actions impacted on the political schemes and upheavals of Renaissance Italy. And Freida's chosen as her subjects some truly fascinating women: Lucrezia Tornabuoni, the politically savvy mother of Lorenzo de' Medici; Clarice Orsini, Lorenzo's oft-ignored wife; Caterina Sforza, the notorious "Tiger of Forli"; sisters Isabella and Beatrice d'Este, both great patrons of culture; Isabella d'Aragona, the ill-fortuned Duchess of Milan; Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI; and Giulia Farnese, the Pope's mistress. Some of these women I already knew about, others I didn't, but I was eager to learn more.
Here's the problem, though: Despite the promises of the book's introduction, these women don't really end up being the focal point of the text.
Frieda's intentions are good: seeking to demonstrate the impact these eight women's lives had on the politics and culture of Renaissance Italy, she attempts to weave their stories through the broader picture of alliances, rivalries, wars, diplomacy, power-plays and scheming. She takes a chronological approach, visiting and revisiting each woman at various key points in her life and frequently stepping back to survey the broader political landscape. It's a lot of balls to keep in the air, and unfortunately it just doesn't work. With so much of the book consumed by explaining the events of the day, Frieda is unable to give adequate time to any of her eight subjects. As a result, each woman's story is diluted, simplified and ultimately dwarfed by the big picture happenings, and I never got to know any of them as well as I would have liked to.
It bothers me how uncritically Frieda approaches many of her sources. Legends are presented as fact, as are pejorative accusations of insanity and sexual deviancy. She tells us that Caterina Sforza flashed her vag at Ravaldino (she didn't), that Gian Galeazzo Sforza and Isabella d'Aragona were both "mad" (a lazy and extremely unfair oversimplification), and that Anna Sforza was so unimpressed by her husband's sexual performance that she took to cross dressing and sleeping with women (are you fucking kidding me). As a history graduate, this is the kind of thing that drives me crazy, and I find it inexcusable that a history writer would repeat such obviously problematic claims without even bothering to unpack them. The lack of a complete bibliography or endnotes also makes it harder to easily follow up on some of Frieda's more questionable claims.
There is some decent material in there -- going into the book, I knew nothing about the Medici women, and I found Frieda's discussion of them and the roles they played in Lorenzo's regime quite fascinating -- but there's a lot more that either isn't satisfactorily fleshed out or is flat-out questionable. None of the women are explored in the depth they deserve, and more often what we see are one-dimensional characters -- and in a few cases, outright caricatures. Isabella d'Este is done the greatest disservice; Frieda delights in mocking her acquisitiveness, her petty rivalries, her pride and (most irritatingly) her weight, which barely even sparing a mention for her cultural patronage, her regency in Mantua or her famed studiolo and grotta.
The poor standard of editing evident throughout the book unfortunately does nothing to help Frieda's case. The whole thing is in desperate need of a copyeditor to make sense of the atrocious number of misspellings, typos, grammatical errors, misused words, nonsensical sentence fragments, poor wording and difficult-to-follow run-on sentences. It's more than just a few simple proofreading oversights; the book is riddled with serious errors which ought to put any editor to shame.
In one instance the author mentions a letter "written ... following Lucrezia's marriage to Giovanni Sforza by her brother-in-law". The somewhat clumsy wording makes it appear that Frieda is referring to Lucrezia's brother-in-law; it's only five sentences later we discover that she's actually talking about the brother-in-law of Giulia Farnese.
We also get nonsensical, incomplete sentence fragments such as the following:
-- "There are grounds to suspect that her reaction was hysterical enough even the idea that Poliziano might be homosexual"
-- "The idea that the bastard daughter of the Borgia from Valencia, otherwise known as marranos, made the marriage a preposterous fancy."
And some downright awkward wording:
-- "His [Rodrigo's] mother never saw Rodrigo [again]" (should have been "Rodrigo never saw his mother again" or "Lucrezia never saw her son again")
-- "Alexander [wrote] to the Dieci di Balia ... recommending Caterina to them, for whom he felt a paternal affection" (leaving ambiguity as to whether it's Caterina or the Dieci di Balia for whom he feels a paternal affection)
Good copyediting removes ambiguities; it ensures that the author's meaning is clear and that the text flows smoothly, rather than juddering to a halt as the reader struggles to make sense of an ungrammatical sentence. I can excuse an accidental double-parenthesis, a "Farmese" in place of "Farnese" or a "forge" where the author evidently meant "ford", but for so many glaring mistakes to go to print is unforgivable.
So, my verdict? As an introduction to the politicking and the women of the Italian Renaissance, The Deadly Sisterhood isn't bad. Each of the eight women it deals with are fascinating individuals who are very much worth reading about, and if you're not familiar with Renaissance history you might well find it an interesting read. However, I'm not a fan of Frieda's framing choices; the continual jumping between eight people, and between the individual and the big picture, results in a rather disjointed narrative and requires some patience from the reader. What's more, her uncritical acceptance of biased primary sources can be frustrating and causes me to take some of the things she says with a grain of salt. For all of Frieda's good intentions, there's a lot about this book that's problematic, and it's not necessarily one for a serious student of history.
If you're looking to learn a little about some of the fantastic women of the Italian Renaissance, The Deadly Sisterhood is an okay starting point. However, I'd urge anybody who picks it up to be wary of Frieda's willingness to take primary sources at face value, and to consider picking up some other books on the subject as well.
29/4/13: After some consideration, I'm actually going to amend this. I do not recommend this book to anybody looking for an introduction to this time period or the women who inhabited it. Unless you're at least somewhat familiar with the women of Italian Renaissance, or you're going into the book prepared to take things with a grain of salt, chances are you're going to be misled -- and some of the reviews that are emerging are reflective of this. There are people walking away from this book believing Frieda's bogus claims about Isabella d'Aragona's "madness", Caterina Sforza's vulgar retorts at Ravaldino, and so on, and it's really infuriating to see those kinds of falsehoods perpetuated.
If you are looking for an introduction to some of the women of the Italian Renaissance, I'd recommend starting with Elizabeth Lev's excellent Tigress of Forli, a well-researched and readable biography of Caterina Sforza which picks apart the legends to examine the complex and fascinating woman behind them. Caroline Murphy's The Pope's Daughter, while imperfect, is also a good choice -- it tells the story of Felice della Rovere, the illegitimate daughter of Pope Julius II and another amazing woman, who managed to attain wealth, influence and independence in a world dominated by men.
Here's the problem, though: Despite the promises of the book's introduction, these women don't really end up being the focal point of the text.
Frieda's intentions are good: seeking to demonstrate the impact these eight women's lives had on the politics and culture of Renaissance Italy, she attempts to weave their stories through the broader picture of alliances, rivalries, wars, diplomacy, power-plays and scheming. She takes a chronological approach, visiting and revisiting each woman at various key points in her life and frequently stepping back to survey the broader political landscape. It's a lot of balls to keep in the air, and unfortunately it just doesn't work. With so much of the book consumed by explaining the events of the day, Frieda is unable to give adequate time to any of her eight subjects. As a result, each woman's story is diluted, simplified and ultimately dwarfed by the big picture happenings, and I never got to know any of them as well as I would have liked to.
It bothers me how uncritically Frieda approaches many of her sources. Legends are presented as fact, as are pejorative accusations of insanity and sexual deviancy. She tells us that Caterina Sforza flashed her vag at Ravaldino (she didn't), that Gian Galeazzo Sforza and Isabella d'Aragona were both "mad" (a lazy and extremely unfair oversimplification), and that Anna Sforza was so unimpressed by her husband's sexual performance that she took to cross dressing and sleeping with women (are you fucking kidding me). As a history graduate, this is the kind of thing that drives me crazy, and I find it inexcusable that a history writer would repeat such obviously problematic claims without even bothering to unpack them. The lack of a complete bibliography or endnotes also makes it harder to easily follow up on some of Frieda's more questionable claims.
There is some decent material in there -- going into the book, I knew nothing about the Medici women, and I found Frieda's discussion of them and the roles they played in Lorenzo's regime quite fascinating -- but there's a lot more that either isn't satisfactorily fleshed out or is flat-out questionable. None of the women are explored in the depth they deserve, and more often what we see are one-dimensional characters -- and in a few cases, outright caricatures. Isabella d'Este is done the greatest disservice; Frieda delights in mocking her acquisitiveness, her petty rivalries, her pride and (most irritatingly) her weight, which barely even sparing a mention for her cultural patronage, her regency in Mantua or her famed studiolo and grotta.
The poor standard of editing evident throughout the book unfortunately does nothing to help Frieda's case. The whole thing is in desperate need of a copyeditor to make sense of the atrocious number of misspellings, typos, grammatical errors, misused words, nonsensical sentence fragments, poor wording and difficult-to-follow run-on sentences. It's more than just a few simple proofreading oversights; the book is riddled with serious errors which ought to put any editor to shame.
In one instance the author mentions a letter "written ... following Lucrezia's marriage to Giovanni Sforza by her brother-in-law". The somewhat clumsy wording makes it appear that Frieda is referring to Lucrezia's brother-in-law; it's only five sentences later we discover that she's actually talking about the brother-in-law of Giulia Farnese.
We also get nonsensical, incomplete sentence fragments such as the following:
-- "There are grounds to suspect that her reaction was hysterical enough even the idea that Poliziano might be homosexual"
-- "The idea that the bastard daughter of the Borgia from Valencia, otherwise known as marranos, made the marriage a preposterous fancy."
And some downright awkward wording:
-- "His [Rodrigo's] mother never saw Rodrigo [again]" (should have been "Rodrigo never saw his mother again" or "Lucrezia never saw her son again")
-- "Alexander [wrote] to the Dieci di Balia ... recommending Caterina to them, for whom he felt a paternal affection" (leaving ambiguity as to whether it's Caterina or the Dieci di Balia for whom he feels a paternal affection)
Good copyediting removes ambiguities; it ensures that the author's meaning is clear and that the text flows smoothly, rather than juddering to a halt as the reader struggles to make sense of an ungrammatical sentence. I can excuse an accidental double-parenthesis, a "Farmese" in place of "Farnese" or a "forge" where the author evidently meant "ford", but for so many glaring mistakes to go to print is unforgivable.
So, my verdict? As an introduction to the politicking and the women of the Italian Renaissance, The Deadly Sisterhood isn't bad. Each of the eight women it deals with are fascinating individuals who are very much worth reading about, and if you're not familiar with Renaissance history you might well find it an interesting read. However, I'm not a fan of Frieda's framing choices; the continual jumping between eight people, and between the individual and the big picture, results in a rather disjointed narrative and requires some patience from the reader. What's more, her uncritical acceptance of biased primary sources can be frustrating and causes me to take some of the things she says with a grain of salt. For all of Frieda's good intentions, there's a lot about this book that's problematic, and it's not necessarily one for a serious student of history.
29/4/13: After some consideration, I'm actually going to amend this. I do not recommend this book to anybody looking for an introduction to this time period or the women who inhabited it. Unless you're at least somewhat familiar with the women of Italian Renaissance, or you're going into the book prepared to take things with a grain of salt, chances are you're going to be misled -- and some of the reviews that are emerging are reflective of this. There are people walking away from this book believing Frieda's bogus claims about Isabella d'Aragona's "madness", Caterina Sforza's vulgar retorts at Ravaldino, and so on, and it's really infuriating to see those kinds of falsehoods perpetuated.
If you are looking for an introduction to some of the women of the Italian Renaissance, I'd recommend starting with Elizabeth Lev's excellent Tigress of Forli, a well-researched and readable biography of Caterina Sforza which picks apart the legends to examine the complex and fascinating woman behind them. Caroline Murphy's The Pope's Daughter, while imperfect, is also a good choice -- it tells the story of Felice della Rovere, the illegitimate daughter of Pope Julius II and another amazing woman, who managed to attain wealth, influence and independence in a world dominated by men.
October 12, 2019
*2.5
Wow, this book almost gave me a brain freeze.
And I don't know if it actually has to do with the book itself or with the fact that I like documentaries and podcasts that talk about real life events much more than the books that do the same...
And not only that, but despite the title, it's pretty easy to tell that those women the author claims that she wants to shed more light on, unfortunately aren't the main focus here...
Wow, this book almost gave me a brain freeze.
And I don't know if it actually has to do with the book itself or with the fact that I like documentaries and podcasts that talk about real life events much more than the books that do the same...
And not only that, but despite the title, it's pretty easy to tell that those women the author claims that she wants to shed more light on, unfortunately aren't the main focus here...
July 7, 2016
It is possible I had too high expectations going into The Deadly Sisterhood, but the premise was fantastic: a book about eight different women, often overlooked, living in one of the most tumultuous and fascinating time periods. The Deadly Sisterhood also has, honestly, one of the best and most promising introduction I've ever read; but, unfortunately, in the end it turned out to be quite a disappointment.
Let's start with the positive things first. The book doesn't follow each woman separately, but follows a chronological order instead, and I think this was a good choice. It was very interesting to see how many of their lives interweaved, how some of them interacted with each other, and how their actions and circumstances influenced the lives of the others.
It is also clear that Leonie Frieda did quite a lot of research on the time period, and, while I knew some of these women, others were almost completely unknown to me, and now I can definitely say I know more about them.
Unfortunately, the rest of the book did not convince me. My main problem was that, while there are some intriguing informations about the women, I had the feeling the focus was never entirely on them. It is likely this was due to the fact that there is very little known about some of these women: when Frieda was talking about Caterina Sforza, about whom there are more informations, I did not have that impression; but most of the time I did.
The author also spent too much time talking about Lorenzo il Magnifico and Cesare Borgia, and, while it is without a doubt that both are very interesting figures, having so many pages focused solely on them seemed out of place and useless.
I also found Frieda's partiality annoying sometimes. While it is understandable and even also inevitable that she should prefer some women, I think she exaggerated where Lucrezia Borgia and Isabella d'Este were concerned: she presented the first one as a saint, an example of all feminine virtues, and the other as a ugly, fat and annoying person. I can't imagine readers who admire Isabella will enjoy this portrayal of her.
For these reasons I can't give The Deadly Sisterhood more than 2 stars, but I am very sorry because I had been really looking forward to this book. Frieda's biography of Catherine de Medici was much more enjoyable, so maybe try reading this one instead if you are interested in the subject.
Let's start with the positive things first. The book doesn't follow each woman separately, but follows a chronological order instead, and I think this was a good choice. It was very interesting to see how many of their lives interweaved, how some of them interacted with each other, and how their actions and circumstances influenced the lives of the others.
It is also clear that Leonie Frieda did quite a lot of research on the time period, and, while I knew some of these women, others were almost completely unknown to me, and now I can definitely say I know more about them.
Unfortunately, the rest of the book did not convince me. My main problem was that, while there are some intriguing informations about the women, I had the feeling the focus was never entirely on them. It is likely this was due to the fact that there is very little known about some of these women: when Frieda was talking about Caterina Sforza, about whom there are more informations, I did not have that impression; but most of the time I did.
The author also spent too much time talking about Lorenzo il Magnifico and Cesare Borgia, and, while it is without a doubt that both are very interesting figures, having so many pages focused solely on them seemed out of place and useless.
I also found Frieda's partiality annoying sometimes. While it is understandable and even also inevitable that she should prefer some women, I think she exaggerated where Lucrezia Borgia and Isabella d'Este were concerned: she presented the first one as a saint, an example of all feminine virtues, and the other as a ugly, fat and annoying person. I can't imagine readers who admire Isabella will enjoy this portrayal of her.
For these reasons I can't give The Deadly Sisterhood more than 2 stars, but I am very sorry because I had been really looking forward to this book. Frieda's biography of Catherine de Medici was much more enjoyable, so maybe try reading this one instead if you are interested in the subject.
April 28, 2013
1.5 stars
Nope, couldn't do it. After reading the enlightening The Borgias: The Hidden History, I can no longer respect another book in which the same old salacious stories about the Borgia family are repeated. Oh, Leonie Frieda qualifies a few of the worst rumors with a “perhaps” or “possibly not”, but only in a very reluctant way; all other stories about the Borgias, and Lucrezia specifically, are eagerly related in an almost cackling, “look at how awful these people were” sort of way. She does much the same thing when relating the history of Caterina Sforza. (Frieda repeats the most famous tale about Caterina, in which Caterina supposedly lifts up her skirts and shows her genitals to Orsi rebels while under siege at Ravaldino in response to the rebels threatening her son with death, shouting that she has the capability of making more sons. The origin of this tale is one Galeotto Manfredi, taken from a letter he wrote to Lorenzo de' Medici, but the funny thing is, no other witness to the Ravaldino siege included this vulgar story in their description of the proceedings. Even so, Niccolo Machiavelli decided to repeat this version of events in his Discourses because it suited the general opinion of Caterina's character.) This sort of sordid rumor-mongering only makes the more excellent book about Caterina, The Tigress of Forlì: Renaissance Italy's Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de Medici, shine that much brighter.
The goal of the book, to describe the lives of eight of the most powerful and influential women of the Italian peninsula in the fifteenth century, was a grand one. It's execution, however, fell quite short of the mark. In trying to define these women by describing the world around them, their families, their lineage and history, the geography in which they lived and the events which shaped them, the women themselves disappeared into simplistic and roughly-sketched caricatures of who they truly were. Going into the book, I was already familiar with Lucrezia Borgia, Giulia Farnese, and Caterina Sforza, thanks to the more-comprehensive and better-written books I mentioned above, but had less familiarity with Lucrezia Tornabuoni, a savvy and influential politician, Clarice Orsini, the wife of Lorenzo de' Medici who was overshadowed by her mother-in-law Lucrezia Tonabuoni, Isabella and Beatrice d'Este, sisters, rivals, and fashion plates as well as cultural and political icons, and Isabella d'Aragona, the unhappy and unfortunate Duchess of Milan. Sadly, I can't say I'm any more familiar with them now than I was before reading the book as the biographies of these women were so broadly-drawn as to be nearly useless; I think I could've learned as much from Wikipedia. Not to mention, to judge by her treatment of Lucrezia Borgia and Caterina Sforza, I have a hard time believing that the histories of the other women in this book were objectively written; I doubted and took with a grain of salt nearly every sentence I read. From what I can see, there has been no new research done to write this book--it's simply a rehash of what other chroniclers have written over the centuries with no attempt to either verify or refute any of the information given by those sources--and while I can say that the writing itself is very engaging and lively (which is why I tacked on that half star to the rating), I can't say that I'm impressed with what the writing is saying.
In the end, I found the overall mocking, gossipy, biased tone to be extremely off-putting and I wouldn't recommend this book to any serious student of history, nor would I recommend it as an introductory text to the era as I believe it would do more harm than good and simply continue to spread misinformation.
Nope, couldn't do it. After reading the enlightening The Borgias: The Hidden History, I can no longer respect another book in which the same old salacious stories about the Borgia family are repeated. Oh, Leonie Frieda qualifies a few of the worst rumors with a “perhaps” or “possibly not”, but only in a very reluctant way; all other stories about the Borgias, and Lucrezia specifically, are eagerly related in an almost cackling, “look at how awful these people were” sort of way. She does much the same thing when relating the history of Caterina Sforza. (Frieda repeats the most famous tale about Caterina, in which Caterina supposedly lifts up her skirts and shows her genitals to Orsi rebels while under siege at Ravaldino in response to the rebels threatening her son with death, shouting that she has the capability of making more sons. The origin of this tale is one Galeotto Manfredi, taken from a letter he wrote to Lorenzo de' Medici, but the funny thing is, no other witness to the Ravaldino siege included this vulgar story in their description of the proceedings. Even so, Niccolo Machiavelli decided to repeat this version of events in his Discourses because it suited the general opinion of Caterina's character.) This sort of sordid rumor-mongering only makes the more excellent book about Caterina, The Tigress of Forlì: Renaissance Italy's Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de Medici, shine that much brighter.
The goal of the book, to describe the lives of eight of the most powerful and influential women of the Italian peninsula in the fifteenth century, was a grand one. It's execution, however, fell quite short of the mark. In trying to define these women by describing the world around them, their families, their lineage and history, the geography in which they lived and the events which shaped them, the women themselves disappeared into simplistic and roughly-sketched caricatures of who they truly were. Going into the book, I was already familiar with Lucrezia Borgia, Giulia Farnese, and Caterina Sforza, thanks to the more-comprehensive and better-written books I mentioned above, but had less familiarity with Lucrezia Tornabuoni, a savvy and influential politician, Clarice Orsini, the wife of Lorenzo de' Medici who was overshadowed by her mother-in-law Lucrezia Tonabuoni, Isabella and Beatrice d'Este, sisters, rivals, and fashion plates as well as cultural and political icons, and Isabella d'Aragona, the unhappy and unfortunate Duchess of Milan. Sadly, I can't say I'm any more familiar with them now than I was before reading the book as the biographies of these women were so broadly-drawn as to be nearly useless; I think I could've learned as much from Wikipedia. Not to mention, to judge by her treatment of Lucrezia Borgia and Caterina Sforza, I have a hard time believing that the histories of the other women in this book were objectively written; I doubted and took with a grain of salt nearly every sentence I read. From what I can see, there has been no new research done to write this book--it's simply a rehash of what other chroniclers have written over the centuries with no attempt to either verify or refute any of the information given by those sources--and while I can say that the writing itself is very engaging and lively (which is why I tacked on that half star to the rating), I can't say that I'm impressed with what the writing is saying.
In the end, I found the overall mocking, gossipy, biased tone to be extremely off-putting and I wouldn't recommend this book to any serious student of history, nor would I recommend it as an introductory text to the era as I believe it would do more harm than good and simply continue to spread misinformation.
June 17, 2015
I’ve been wanting to read this one for a while, given how epic Caterina Sforza is in the Assassin’s Creed games. I have read a biography of Caterina herself (Tigress of Forli, by Elizabeth Lev), so I didn’t read this so much for her as for the other women in its pages. I found it a little disorganised, really; it isn’t neatly divided into eight sections, and it’s sometimes hard to see exactly which woman is the key player. And Frieda is claiming to deal with women as key players in Renaissance Italy, and yet Clarice Orsini is exactly what the back blurb says these women are not, a “passive bystander”.
In fact, there’s a whole section that’s primarily about Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Pazzi Conspiracy. Which, shrug. Not what I’m here for, actually.
It’s a readable enough book, but there’s oddly judgemental bits about the women’s weight or appearance, or indeed intelligence if they’re not one of the precious women we’re supposed to view as a sisterhood, and it’s not very well proofread at all. Without looking for it, I found four typos in casual reading. Gah.
Originally posted here.
In fact, there’s a whole section that’s primarily about Lorenzo de’ Medici and the Pazzi Conspiracy. Which, shrug. Not what I’m here for, actually.
It’s a readable enough book, but there’s oddly judgemental bits about the women’s weight or appearance, or indeed intelligence if they’re not one of the precious women we’re supposed to view as a sisterhood, and it’s not very well proofread at all. Without looking for it, I found four typos in casual reading. Gah.
Originally posted here.
November 24, 2013
Oh dear: this should have been such a treat - a group biography of Isabella and Beatrice d'Este, Caterina Sforza, Lucrezia Borgia, Contessina de'Bardi, Clarice Orsini and Lucrezia Tornabuoni - but it was let down by a total lack of copy-editing and sloppy judgemental writing [Joffre Borgia in Naples 'reverting to the superficial ways of a nincompoop']. I've only listed seven names - for the life of me I can't think of the eighth, and none of them were princesses, either :-0
I can't see who this is for - anyone with knowledge of the period will laugh out loud [one of my favourite passages was Frieda's assumption of the posthumous consolation the families of the Pazzi conspirators would take from having their dead relatives painted in disgrace on the walls of the Bargello by Botticelli pg81], and for anyone new to late Quattrocentro Italy the narrative of marriages, alliances, affairs, wars is too complicated to follow easily.
I think this must have been pitched in the middle of 'Borgia'-fever [you think the series is great? the truth is even better!], and has then been rushed out post-cancellation as a kind of 'this is what happened next' resolution to the story lines. Otherwise I cannot see why something so sloppy has been published e.g Caterina Sforza's second husband is introduced and dismissed in the space of a sentence. Also Frieda is unapologetically pro-Alexander Borgia [pg 269] which does suggest some link to the series. If this was a novel she would have got away with it, almost.
Like other readers, I'm not entirely sure what Isabella d'Este ever did to Leonie Frieda to merit the criticism flung in her direction e.g 'Isabella, though grievously struck by her mother's death, typically met it as a fashion challenge' pg 164 and other numerous, frankly bitchy, comments about her weight? What kind of crazy world are we living in when it becomes okay to judge long dead historical figures on their looks??
On the back Kathryn Hughes is quoted, from the 'Mail on Sunday', as saying 'this is a 'Girl's Own' version of the Italian Renaissance, full of bright, brash women, quite a lot of killing...and some really serious statement jewellery'. I have a lot of time for Hughes [she wrote a fabulous biography of George Eliot] and tbh this quote drew me in. Now I'm left wondering if it's been doctored or massaged a touch, and oddly, this review is not on the 'Mail's' website...
So to sum up: for me, entertaining in a so bad it's laughable way, but worse than useless as a source of unbiased reliable information.
I can't see who this is for - anyone with knowledge of the period will laugh out loud [one of my favourite passages was Frieda's assumption of the posthumous consolation the families of the Pazzi conspirators would take from having their dead relatives painted in disgrace on the walls of the Bargello by Botticelli pg81], and for anyone new to late Quattrocentro Italy the narrative of marriages, alliances, affairs, wars is too complicated to follow easily.
I think this must have been pitched in the middle of 'Borgia'-fever [you think the series is great? the truth is even better!], and has then been rushed out post-cancellation as a kind of 'this is what happened next' resolution to the story lines. Otherwise I cannot see why something so sloppy has been published e.g Caterina Sforza's second husband is introduced and dismissed in the space of a sentence. Also Frieda is unapologetically pro-Alexander Borgia [pg 269] which does suggest some link to the series. If this was a novel she would have got away with it, almost.
Like other readers, I'm not entirely sure what Isabella d'Este ever did to Leonie Frieda to merit the criticism flung in her direction e.g 'Isabella, though grievously struck by her mother's death, typically met it as a fashion challenge' pg 164 and other numerous, frankly bitchy, comments about her weight? What kind of crazy world are we living in when it becomes okay to judge long dead historical figures on their looks??
On the back Kathryn Hughes is quoted, from the 'Mail on Sunday', as saying 'this is a 'Girl's Own' version of the Italian Renaissance, full of bright, brash women, quite a lot of killing...and some really serious statement jewellery'. I have a lot of time for Hughes [she wrote a fabulous biography of George Eliot] and tbh this quote drew me in. Now I'm left wondering if it's been doctored or massaged a touch, and oddly, this review is not on the 'Mail's' website...
So to sum up: for me, entertaining in a so bad it's laughable way, but worse than useless as a source of unbiased reliable information.
Want to read
November 21, 2012Just got approved for a digital review copy of this book - Woo Hoo!!!
April 11, 2013
Note--My copy of this book is actually titled The Deadly Sisterhood: A Story Women, Power and Intrigue in the Italian Renaissance.
An unwieldy cast of characters drifts in and out of this book's chapters making it hard to keep track of them all, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the book once I adopted a more relaxed attitude. It's packed with 100 years of turbulent history told through up close and personal accounts of several prominent families, making the book as entertaining as a well written gossip magazine. I didn't know much about the Italian Renaissance before so the book was an eye opener for me. Italy at this time was a collection of independent kingdoms each with its own distinct culture and set of wealthy nobles who schemed among themselves for power.
Women are the focus of the book and though they didn't officially have a lot of political clout they managed to influence events anyway. One of the most dramatic examples came near the beginning of the book when Caterina Sforza, Countess of Forli, tricked her husband's assassins into allowing her to take refuge in a strategically placed fortress, giving her the means to run them off. When the mob threatened to kill her son if she didn't surrender Caterina stood on a high balcony and lifted her skirts to show them in the most graphic way that murdering her older children would be futile because she already had another on the way. The mob that hoped to overthrow her family fled. While all the women profiled had fascinating lives, that story stuck in my mind and every time Caterina came back into the narrative I sat up and paid special attention.
An unwieldy cast of characters drifts in and out of this book's chapters making it hard to keep track of them all, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the book once I adopted a more relaxed attitude. It's packed with 100 years of turbulent history told through up close and personal accounts of several prominent families, making the book as entertaining as a well written gossip magazine. I didn't know much about the Italian Renaissance before so the book was an eye opener for me. Italy at this time was a collection of independent kingdoms each with its own distinct culture and set of wealthy nobles who schemed among themselves for power.
Women are the focus of the book and though they didn't officially have a lot of political clout they managed to influence events anyway. One of the most dramatic examples came near the beginning of the book when Caterina Sforza, Countess of Forli, tricked her husband's assassins into allowing her to take refuge in a strategically placed fortress, giving her the means to run them off. When the mob threatened to kill her son if she didn't surrender Caterina stood on a high balcony and lifted her skirts to show them in the most graphic way that murdering her older children would be futile because she already had another on the way. The mob that hoped to overthrow her family fled. While all the women profiled had fascinating lives, that story stuck in my mind and every time Caterina came back into the narrative I sat up and paid special attention.
April 1, 2018
Harper really went for presentation on this book: lovely cover, color plates, nice presentation. Guess where they skimped? If you picked editing, you'd be right. The first third of the book has a surprising number of typos for such an otherwise well-packaged book, mostly missing words, which gets annoying after the first three or so. There are fairly confusing sections, which, granted, it was a confusing time period. But you will learn more about Cesare Borgia than you would expect from a book about a group of women in a specific period of history, a lot of the battles blur into irrelevancy, one woman is going mad in one paragraph, but is described as a force to be reckoned with a short time later, etc. Also, the author has FEELINGS about fat people. Rather a lot of them. Reader, she does not approve and it will be mentioned with monotonous (and possibly, enraging) frequency. So why is this not a one star review? Reader, I waffled, there are some interesting historical tidbits and chapters and I did find some things that I want to follow up on. But I cannot recommend it as is. Pity. It had such promise.
August 15, 2023
This is a book in desperate need of an editor. It reads like a first draft and is littered with typos and grammatical errors. Although it includes some fun description of exciting events, the organization makes it almost impossible to keep track of the participants. I found myself just meandering from intrigue to intrigue, and not bothering to try to remember who was who. The pictures are very nice. I picked this up after enjoying Maggie O'Farrell's book "The Marriage Portrait" and wanting to learn a little more Italian history. I may try another one of Frieda's books once I recover from this one, in the hopes that this particular one is an unfortunate abberation.
March 2, 2017
I really, really wanted to like this book. I pushed through the purple prose of the prologue because the stories are just fascinating. But after page 159, I had to stop. Pages 151 -153, Frieda writes about the Italians were prejudiced against the Spaniards, especially the Catalans. Then she refers to the Catalans as marranos. on pages 153 and 155. She wrote in the footnote that "Marrano was the highly derogatory, largely anti-Semitic term used to describe the Valencian people." NO. Marrano referred to Iberian Jews who were forced to convert to Catholicism, but still secretly practiced Judaism. When people said the Borgias were Marranos, they were calling them either crypto-Jews or descendants of Jews. This was an explicit call to anti-Semitism. Writing otherwise is either ignorant or mealy-mouthed. I will give the author the benefit of the doubt, and assume she was ill-informed. Unfortunately, that means there is no reason for me to finish the book.
February 25, 2017
I really wanted this book to be great, and as long as you go in to it looking for an admirable historical retelling of these women's fathers, brothers, husbands, and lovers then you have a gem on your hands, but it's not what I was looking for. I had hoped Frieda would have more information about the 8 women the book proports to be about as Caterina Sforza's life always sounds so fascinating. A warrior, alchemist, scholar who is also a woman that lived during the Italian Renaissance? I want to know more! But honestly there just wasn't enough historical meat on these women to dedicate a book to them and it leaves me wondering why the author attempted it.
July 3, 2016
Not a lady-assassins novel, but a history book about the role of eight significant women in Unknown.jpegthe Italian peninsula during the Renaissance.
I scored this at a school market for about $2, which was very cool.
Firstly, two problems:
1. There were a number of egregious editing issues, which really annoyed me. A major publisher should not be putting out books with mistakes that *I* can pick up as I read it - it's not like I read with the attention of a copy editor.
2. More significantly, the book falls into the trap that many such history books do. They're trying to write a book about the women, who have largely been ignored by contemporary and modern historians... but there's so much else! being done by the lads! and honest, it's needed for context! ... that there are large slabs of text that really don't seem to be connected to the women who are in theory at the heart of the book. Even if there are occasional mentions of "oh, and he was Duchess Blah's son". It was frustrating to have the women seem to be ignored in their own book.
Anyway. Frieda focusses on eight women, some of whom I'd heard of - Lucrezia Borgia, of course - and others I hadn't heard of - of course. It covers the height of the Italian Renaissance, from 1471 to 1527. She discusses their births and marriages and deaths, their children and (often multiple) husbands, as well as the roles they played in politics - both consciously and as marital pawns - and in the artistic and cultural milieu. Actually that last was the bit that, surprisingly, got least attention; I would have thought that the women would have played greater roles as patrons. Perhaps Frieda was more interested in discussing the political aspect, which is definitely at the forefront of her interests here.
Despite the problems mentioned above - and that sometimes the language was a bit too snarky; I don't need to be reminded that one of the Isabellas apparently got quite fat, unless that contributed to how people treated her - I did enjoy reading this, and I am very pleased to know more about these women of important families who themselves managed to do important and significant things.
I scored this at a school market for about $2, which was very cool.
Firstly, two problems:
1. There were a number of egregious editing issues, which really annoyed me. A major publisher should not be putting out books with mistakes that *I* can pick up as I read it - it's not like I read with the attention of a copy editor.
2. More significantly, the book falls into the trap that many such history books do. They're trying to write a book about the women, who have largely been ignored by contemporary and modern historians... but there's so much else! being done by the lads! and honest, it's needed for context! ... that there are large slabs of text that really don't seem to be connected to the women who are in theory at the heart of the book. Even if there are occasional mentions of "oh, and he was Duchess Blah's son". It was frustrating to have the women seem to be ignored in their own book.
Anyway. Frieda focusses on eight women, some of whom I'd heard of - Lucrezia Borgia, of course - and others I hadn't heard of - of course. It covers the height of the Italian Renaissance, from 1471 to 1527. She discusses their births and marriages and deaths, their children and (often multiple) husbands, as well as the roles they played in politics - both consciously and as marital pawns - and in the artistic and cultural milieu. Actually that last was the bit that, surprisingly, got least attention; I would have thought that the women would have played greater roles as patrons. Perhaps Frieda was more interested in discussing the political aspect, which is definitely at the forefront of her interests here.
Despite the problems mentioned above - and that sometimes the language was a bit too snarky; I don't need to be reminded that one of the Isabellas apparently got quite fat, unless that contributed to how people treated her - I did enjoy reading this, and I am very pleased to know more about these women of important families who themselves managed to do important and significant things.
April 24, 2013
The Pageantry and Brutality of the Renaissance
The Renaissance was a time of contradictions: sumptuous courts, exquisite art and architecture, classical works of literature, but also greed, malice and murder. It was a time when political disputes were often solved by the dagger. Women as well as men played a significant role in this turbulent time: Lucrezia Burnabuoni, who helped her son Lorenzo d'Medici rule Florence; Caterina Sforza, who tricked her husband's assassins into letting into the fortress of Ravaldino where she held them off and overcame the rebels; the sisters, Isabella and Beatrice d'Este, first ladies of the rival kingdoms of Mantua and Milan; Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI; and more. A colorful cast of characters skilfully brought to life.
This well-researched book reads almost like a historical novel. The setting has all the elements of romance and intrigue, and the ladies who ruled the Italian peninsula were strong women whose lives were full of political intrigue, violence, and romance. The author does an excellent job of showing them to us as real people with loves, hates, and fears.
It does take concentration to read the book. I found the Italian names confusing in the beginning, but I gradually got used to them. There are a great many characters with the same or almost identical names. However, it's worth the trouble to sort them out.
I highly recommend this book if you enjoy history, or even if you love a good story. This is not an easy, light book, but it is well worth reading.
I reviewed this book for the Amazon Vine Program.
The Renaissance was a time of contradictions: sumptuous courts, exquisite art and architecture, classical works of literature, but also greed, malice and murder. It was a time when political disputes were often solved by the dagger. Women as well as men played a significant role in this turbulent time: Lucrezia Burnabuoni, who helped her son Lorenzo d'Medici rule Florence; Caterina Sforza, who tricked her husband's assassins into letting into the fortress of Ravaldino where she held them off and overcame the rebels; the sisters, Isabella and Beatrice d'Este, first ladies of the rival kingdoms of Mantua and Milan; Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI; and more. A colorful cast of characters skilfully brought to life.
This well-researched book reads almost like a historical novel. The setting has all the elements of romance and intrigue, and the ladies who ruled the Italian peninsula were strong women whose lives were full of political intrigue, violence, and romance. The author does an excellent job of showing them to us as real people with loves, hates, and fears.
It does take concentration to read the book. I found the Italian names confusing in the beginning, but I gradually got used to them. There are a great many characters with the same or almost identical names. However, it's worth the trouble to sort them out.
I highly recommend this book if you enjoy history, or even if you love a good story. This is not an easy, light book, but it is well worth reading.
I reviewed this book for the Amazon Vine Program.
April 3, 2013
There is nothing I like better than reading about empowered women who fought against the restrictions of their time. So, when I heard about The Deadly Sisterhood more than a year ago, I immediately put it on my wish list. And I was thrilled when I was able to read an advance copy.
The Deadly Sisterhood is mainly about eight women from the Italian Renaissance. And while the focus is on these eight women, we do hear about others.
The main point of this book was to see the lasting legacies the women of this time left: whether it was from their own extreme or lesser actions, or through their descendants.
The boldness of these women showed. When the last of the eight women featured here died - Isabella d'Este - with her died an end of an era. An era where women where able to take control, and even manipulate to gain power and status. After the death of Isabella, the world in which she lived changed, and became a place she and her contemporary women would have felt stifled in.
One of the women featured in this book is Caterina Sforza. I had read a fantastic biography about her last year, but was still thrilled that she was included here. I actually learned a bit more about her, not surprisingly considering the depths of this woman’s amazingness could not all be included in one book.
The Deadly Sisterhood is highly recommended to those interested in the Italian Renaissance and women's history. How appropriate that I finish it during Women's History Month.
The Deadly Sisterhood is mainly about eight women from the Italian Renaissance. And while the focus is on these eight women, we do hear about others.
The main point of this book was to see the lasting legacies the women of this time left: whether it was from their own extreme or lesser actions, or through their descendants.
The boldness of these women showed. When the last of the eight women featured here died - Isabella d'Este - with her died an end of an era. An era where women where able to take control, and even manipulate to gain power and status. After the death of Isabella, the world in which she lived changed, and became a place she and her contemporary women would have felt stifled in.
One of the women featured in this book is Caterina Sforza. I had read a fantastic biography about her last year, but was still thrilled that she was included here. I actually learned a bit more about her, not surprisingly considering the depths of this woman’s amazingness could not all be included in one book.
The Deadly Sisterhood is highly recommended to those interested in the Italian Renaissance and women's history. How appropriate that I finish it during Women's History Month.
Read
March 16, 2013In the Italian Renaissance 1427 - 1527
Women in the Italian Renaissance
This is an excellent read for anyone desiring to learn more about this period, understanding that most books on this era have the same problems. There are over one hundred fifty papal states; there is continuous warring and attempting to take over another’s kingdom; and there is continual strife over and with each Pope. Although this book is entitled to bring a new facet of the women who played important parts during these times, there is less about the women and more about the men who affect their lives. Although the author probably historically chronicled the events, it still becomes a little difficult to keep everything straight and the names are particularly confusing. As the chapters flow, I couldn’t be sure I was reading about the same person or someone new, and I don’t attribute that to the author. I think it is just a fact for those who are just educating self about this age. I think the book is well written and I recommend it to all those who enjoy historical genre.
Women in the Italian Renaissance
This is an excellent read for anyone desiring to learn more about this period, understanding that most books on this era have the same problems. There are over one hundred fifty papal states; there is continuous warring and attempting to take over another’s kingdom; and there is continual strife over and with each Pope. Although this book is entitled to bring a new facet of the women who played important parts during these times, there is less about the women and more about the men who affect their lives. Although the author probably historically chronicled the events, it still becomes a little difficult to keep everything straight and the names are particularly confusing. As the chapters flow, I couldn’t be sure I was reading about the same person or someone new, and I don’t attribute that to the author. I think it is just a fact for those who are just educating self about this age. I think the book is well written and I recommend it to all those who enjoy historical genre.
July 5, 2017
I picked this book up, drawn by its emphasis on the key women of the Renaissance era. However, while it does profile the likes of Lucrezia Borgia in extensive and sympathetic fashion, they get somewhat lost amid a constant stream of names which rapidly become confusing to the general reader - even *with* the family trees that are included at the front of the book. The author rushes through events without fully explaining contexts - leading to a bewildering succession of marriages, murders, invasions and battles, yet more names and you've already forgotten who was on which side and what these conflicts were about in the first place.
And that's before I mention the typos. It would appear that this book was rushed into publication as there are multiple typographic errors - in some cases there are sentences where a word appears to be missing as the sentences themselves don't quite make sense.
I did learn a few new things from this book and it has made me want to learn more about the era, but as I said, it feels rushed and nowhere near as good a book as it could have been.
And that's before I mention the typos. It would appear that this book was rushed into publication as there are multiple typographic errors - in some cases there are sentences where a word appears to be missing as the sentences themselves don't quite make sense.
I did learn a few new things from this book and it has made me want to learn more about the era, but as I said, it feels rushed and nowhere near as good a book as it could have been.
September 13, 2014
I've always loved history, but I've never really gotten into Italian History after Christianity entered the picture. Frieda helped me learn to appreciate the Italian Renaissance and the smart conniving women who shaped it. The information is pretty straight forward with no hedging or "interpretations" or guessing games. There is definitely no tweaking history here. The only thing that brought down the rating for me was the inconsistency. At times it felt like I was being told a story, and at others it felt like I was being led past a line of really boring men spouting off facts whenever I passed. All in all it was a great look at history and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in this time.
October 17, 2013
So did Isabella d'Este steal the author's boyfriend in high school? Pour sugar down her gas tank? Kill her father in a duel? Otherwise, I'm hard-pressed to explain the apparent deep-seated animus that she has for a woman whose greatest crimes seem to be occasionally taking advantage of her friends' misfortune, envying her perfect sister-in-law, and getting fat. So that bugged. And the typos, too. ("Francesco Gorizaga" instead of "Francesco Gonzaga," etc.) Aside from those two quibbles, though, I found this to be a really enjoyable take on the female protagonists of the Italian Renaissance.
September 10, 2022
A re-read of this excellent book looking at eight women who forged their own path during the Renaissance.
May 18, 2019
I came to Leonie Frieda on the back of her biography of Catherine De Medici, which, despite not being particularly within my period of interest, was a really enjoyable and deep look at a complex personality who deserved to be re-examined for the modern era. With half an eye on reading her biography of Francis I once it became a bit cheaper, my hope was that the Deadly Sisterhood would compliment my existing reading on the earlier Italian Renaissance and give equally good service to some of the fascinating women of the period who have previously been maligned or overlooked.
To be fair to Freida, this is by no means an awful book. She writes well, for the most part, and manages to keep the narrative going at a fair pace without being bogged down in too much detail or the minutiae of any particular aspect of the period. She evidently admires the women in the piece without beatifying them, and does a good job of humanising them and offering a comparatively balanced account of their motivations, characters, virtues and vices. At the same time, she maintains a good eye for the dramatic and for a good turn of phrase, and I certainly found aspects of the work gripping, especially when she managed to focus in on a particular character such as Caterina Sforza or Lucrezia Borgia.
That being said, I couldn't help but feel that this was a work which bit off more than it can chew. Trying to cram eight different personalities (and indeed a lot more, given that the narrative also encompasses detailed analyses of many of the men of the period, often to the detriment of their female counterparts) over a period of 60 years in one of the most chaotic periods of European history into one book makes for a rather intensive work, especially when it's 200 pages shorter than her work on Catherine De Medici. As such, no one really gets a fair crack of the whip and the entire book leaves one anxious for a bit more focus and a bit more information about each of the women, which seems quite disappointing given the density of the text and the information provided.
As a side effect of this decision to attack so much material and tell the entire story, I couldn't help but feel that the work needed a bit more structure or just sign-posting for readers who are familiar with aspects of the period but don't have a comprehensive knowledge. Too often, Freida seems to attempt to resolve the problem of the sheer mass of history to get through by just ploughing in and hoping the audience will keep up, and especially towards the end I was mentally checking out having been overwhelmed by a cast of hundreds. Given the very labyrinthine nature of some of the politics and family trees, the work would have benefited from a more thematic structure, or at the very least by having a few moments every so often to breathe, analyse the material, frame the narrative and highlight the key points.
Finally, this lack of consistent and overarching analysis meant that I felt the work didn't really offer much either in terms of an overall thesis (beyond that the subjects of her book were all interesting and worthy of attention) or indeed a particularly incisive interpretation of any one figure. While the conclusion does raise some interesting points about the end of the period limiting the role of women and the narrative as a whole nicely shows that there wasn't one single defining facet of what it meant to be a strong and successful woman in the period, none of it was particularly radical, and it's hard not to come out of the work with a desire for something more.
All in all, this is a work which shows a lot of potential but which could do with either a larger canvas across several volumes, or a much more discerning focus. At the moment, it seems to be stuck in between a general history of the period (albeit with a welcome focus on the role of women in the Renaissance) and a really incisive analysis of the role of women in the period. It's certainly worth a read, but I suspect it will not go down as being a classic of the genre.
To be fair to Freida, this is by no means an awful book. She writes well, for the most part, and manages to keep the narrative going at a fair pace without being bogged down in too much detail or the minutiae of any particular aspect of the period. She evidently admires the women in the piece without beatifying them, and does a good job of humanising them and offering a comparatively balanced account of their motivations, characters, virtues and vices. At the same time, she maintains a good eye for the dramatic and for a good turn of phrase, and I certainly found aspects of the work gripping, especially when she managed to focus in on a particular character such as Caterina Sforza or Lucrezia Borgia.
That being said, I couldn't help but feel that this was a work which bit off more than it can chew. Trying to cram eight different personalities (and indeed a lot more, given that the narrative also encompasses detailed analyses of many of the men of the period, often to the detriment of their female counterparts) over a period of 60 years in one of the most chaotic periods of European history into one book makes for a rather intensive work, especially when it's 200 pages shorter than her work on Catherine De Medici. As such, no one really gets a fair crack of the whip and the entire book leaves one anxious for a bit more focus and a bit more information about each of the women, which seems quite disappointing given the density of the text and the information provided.
As a side effect of this decision to attack so much material and tell the entire story, I couldn't help but feel that the work needed a bit more structure or just sign-posting for readers who are familiar with aspects of the period but don't have a comprehensive knowledge. Too often, Freida seems to attempt to resolve the problem of the sheer mass of history to get through by just ploughing in and hoping the audience will keep up, and especially towards the end I was mentally checking out having been overwhelmed by a cast of hundreds. Given the very labyrinthine nature of some of the politics and family trees, the work would have benefited from a more thematic structure, or at the very least by having a few moments every so often to breathe, analyse the material, frame the narrative and highlight the key points.
Finally, this lack of consistent and overarching analysis meant that I felt the work didn't really offer much either in terms of an overall thesis (beyond that the subjects of her book were all interesting and worthy of attention) or indeed a particularly incisive interpretation of any one figure. While the conclusion does raise some interesting points about the end of the period limiting the role of women and the narrative as a whole nicely shows that there wasn't one single defining facet of what it meant to be a strong and successful woman in the period, none of it was particularly radical, and it's hard not to come out of the work with a desire for something more.
All in all, this is a work which shows a lot of potential but which could do with either a larger canvas across several volumes, or a much more discerning focus. At the moment, it seems to be stuck in between a general history of the period (albeit with a welcome focus on the role of women in the Renaissance) and a really incisive analysis of the role of women in the period. It's certainly worth a read, but I suspect it will not go down as being a classic of the genre.
April 19, 2021
My sister got me this book for my birthday, and I was psyched to read it. I was expecting something epic and feminist, showcasing the strength of these women and their roles in the huge cluster that was Italian politics at the time. Some of these women, I already knew a lot about (Lucrezia Borgia, Caterina Sforza, Giulia Farnese), others I had a basic knowledge of (Lucrezia Tornabuoni) and the rest I knew pretty much nothing about. Given the length of this book, I wasn't expecting some epic analysis of all of the women. I know that usually in group biographies things get glossed over or edited out to make room for everyone's stories. But this book was just bad.
First of all, the title is confusing. This book isn't about any sort of "sisterhood" between the women involved. In fact, some of them outright hated each other. Neither were any of them particularly deadly. Caterina Sforza was the only one with any real independent power that would have put her in the position to kill anybody, and she did have plenty of people executed after plots against her loved ones, but other than that none of the other women were involved in any sort of violence. Most of them were just married to powerful men, who were deadly, sure, but that definitely doesn't fit in with the Deadly Sisterhood motif.
Also, this book claims to be the story of women. And yeah, it does have sections that focus on the women themselves, but a lot of this book is reiterating history of the time period. That is necessary in a book about the shifting politics in the Renaissance, but again it doesn't do what it promises in the title. If you're writing a book about politics in the Renaissance, say it. Don't go after the readers of history who are dying for some female centric nonfiction and then not deliver what is promised.
I wanted to learn about the women in this book that I didn't know much about; Isabella d'Este, Beatrice d'Este, Isabella d'Aragona, Clarice Orsini, and to a lesser extent, Lucrezia Tornabuoni. Honestly, after reading this entire book, I feel like I still don't really know much about them. I learned that Lucrezia Tornabuoni couldn't smell despite having a big nose. I learned that Isabella d'Este was petty and jealous and did nothing really important on her own (or more likely Leonie Frieda just doesn't like her). I learned that Isabella d'Aragona was sad. And that's about it. I think the most valuable thing I got from this was a firmer understanding of who all these women were married to, names that I recognize from all the other books I've read recently, and so connections in the convoluted world of Renaissance Italy were more easily understood. The family trees at the front of the book were good, but even they were lacking because when I wanted to see how Giovanni Sforza, Lucrezia Borgia's first husband, was related to Caterina Sforza, it wasn't even on the tree.
Overall, this was one of the most disappointing books I've read lately.
First of all, the title is confusing. This book isn't about any sort of "sisterhood" between the women involved. In fact, some of them outright hated each other. Neither were any of them particularly deadly. Caterina Sforza was the only one with any real independent power that would have put her in the position to kill anybody, and she did have plenty of people executed after plots against her loved ones, but other than that none of the other women were involved in any sort of violence. Most of them were just married to powerful men, who were deadly, sure, but that definitely doesn't fit in with the Deadly Sisterhood motif.
Also, this book claims to be the story of women. And yeah, it does have sections that focus on the women themselves, but a lot of this book is reiterating history of the time period. That is necessary in a book about the shifting politics in the Renaissance, but again it doesn't do what it promises in the title. If you're writing a book about politics in the Renaissance, say it. Don't go after the readers of history who are dying for some female centric nonfiction and then not deliver what is promised.
I wanted to learn about the women in this book that I didn't know much about; Isabella d'Este, Beatrice d'Este, Isabella d'Aragona, Clarice Orsini, and to a lesser extent, Lucrezia Tornabuoni. Honestly, after reading this entire book, I feel like I still don't really know much about them. I learned that Lucrezia Tornabuoni couldn't smell despite having a big nose. I learned that Isabella d'Este was petty and jealous and did nothing really important on her own (or more likely Leonie Frieda just doesn't like her). I learned that Isabella d'Aragona was sad. And that's about it. I think the most valuable thing I got from this was a firmer understanding of who all these women were married to, names that I recognize from all the other books I've read recently, and so connections in the convoluted world of Renaissance Italy were more easily understood. The family trees at the front of the book were good, but even they were lacking because when I wanted to see how Giovanni Sforza, Lucrezia Borgia's first husband, was related to Caterina Sforza, it wasn't even on the tree.
Overall, this was one of the most disappointing books I've read lately.
May 27, 2019
Aside from reading about the Borgias, I know very, very little of the history of Italy. As a story, this book is interesting in a mild way. Lucrezia di Francesco Turnabuoni, the mother of Lorenzo the Magnificent of Florence, was definitely a matriarch and co-ruler with her son until she died. She picked Lorenzo's wife Clarice Orsini (of the Roman family) because she was pretty enough, biddable and an Orsini. Clarice was disliked by other Florentine women because she was a "stranger". They had wanted to marry Lorenzo and bring some of the Medici money and prestige into their own families. So she did not have status until Lucrezia Turnabuoni finally died, and even then she didn't count as more than a trophy wife.
Isabella d'Aragona (from the Kingdom of Naples) had it even worse as the wife of Giangaleazzo Sforza nominal Duke of Milan. Giangaleazzo's uncle Ludovico ("Il Moro") would not give up the regency of Milan, when Giangaleazzo came of age. Isabella went mad from trying to advance her husband's claims.
Ludovico's wife was Isabella d'Aragona's childhood playmate Beatrice d'Este. She became Ludovico's duchess when Giangaleazzo wasted away and died and he became Duke of Milan in name as well as fact.
Isabella d'Este, Beatrice's sister, was also Beatrice's rival in the "I'm the fairest and richest of all noble wives" contest. She also became the rival of Lucrezia Borgia, her brother Alphonso's wife and Duchess of Feria.
Lucrezia was the fairest, if not the richest, of them all. She was blonde, white teethed, slim and Pope Alexander VII's daughter. The Borgias were parvenus in society, even though they had two popes on their family tree at that time, because they were Catalans - from Spain, not Italy, and not nobles even there.
Certainly not least was Caterina Sforza, the Warrior Duchess of Forli. She put down an insurrection, was imprisoned by Cesare Borgia (perhaps raped as well or perhaps willing to be Cesare's lover, but not willing to give up her duchy) and she came out of her up-and-down fortunes alive and well off.
Her two oldest sons ran from the battlefield and later sponged off her, but she always was on their side. It seems a number of the male nobles were like them: fighting each other and living dissolute lives and expecting their wives to back them up, even though their marriages were arranged, without complaint or question.
There was little social history in this book, which might have improved it, since we can understand these ladies better if we knew not only what they were up against in their arranged marriages, but what they can do about it.
Isabella d'Aragona (from the Kingdom of Naples) had it even worse as the wife of Giangaleazzo Sforza nominal Duke of Milan. Giangaleazzo's uncle Ludovico ("Il Moro") would not give up the regency of Milan, when Giangaleazzo came of age. Isabella went mad from trying to advance her husband's claims.
Ludovico's wife was Isabella d'Aragona's childhood playmate Beatrice d'Este. She became Ludovico's duchess when Giangaleazzo wasted away and died and he became Duke of Milan in name as well as fact.
Isabella d'Este, Beatrice's sister, was also Beatrice's rival in the "I'm the fairest and richest of all noble wives" contest. She also became the rival of Lucrezia Borgia, her brother Alphonso's wife and Duchess of Feria.
Lucrezia was the fairest, if not the richest, of them all. She was blonde, white teethed, slim and Pope Alexander VII's daughter. The Borgias were parvenus in society, even though they had two popes on their family tree at that time, because they were Catalans - from Spain, not Italy, and not nobles even there.
Certainly not least was Caterina Sforza, the Warrior Duchess of Forli. She put down an insurrection, was imprisoned by Cesare Borgia (perhaps raped as well or perhaps willing to be Cesare's lover, but not willing to give up her duchy) and she came out of her up-and-down fortunes alive and well off.
Her two oldest sons ran from the battlefield and later sponged off her, but she always was on their side. It seems a number of the male nobles were like them: fighting each other and living dissolute lives and expecting their wives to back them up, even though their marriages were arranged, without complaint or question.
There was little social history in this book, which might have improved it, since we can understand these ladies better if we knew not only what they were up against in their arranged marriages, but what they can do about it.
August 22, 2025
This was a hard one to get through, folks...The premise was so interesting that seeing Frieda completely miss the point was actually painful. I don't believe impartiality is something achievable when writing about anything, especially historical figures, but the author certainly didn't even attempt it. I'm not sure what Isabella D'Este did to this author, but it must have been very bad to justify the way she's portrayed in The Deadly Sisterhood.
In fact, for a book whose main proposal was to be portraits of powerful and influential women, Leonie Frieda approaches her subjects with a very misogynistic view. While I understand these stories are being reconstructed from historical anecdotes and, as a result, reflect the society and values of the time, I was surprised to see that the author not only took the accounts at face value but also doubled down on the misogyny. Sure, any historian and writer is allowed to have their own points of view about events, but I would have imagined a book about influential women would offer a more nuanced perspective on them, not just "Isabella D'Este was a fat bitch" (and, believe me, even if these words aren't in this particular order in the book, that's absolutely the end message) or "Angela Borgia was incredibly stupid and had no redeeming qualities whatsoever". At most, Lucrezia Borgia and (maybe!) Lucrezia Tuornabouni get a pass, but that's only if you're kind enough to ignore the misogynistic undertones. Quite frankly, the whole book felt like listening to a very mean, very judgmental, gossip session.
The subjects' lives intertwined with each other's and Frieda chose to section the book by decade, so often we had moments where one character was in 1449 and the other was in 1441 with very little indication of this time shift. One second I was reading about Beatrice D'Este's death, and on the next she was planning a party. While I appreciate the idea of creating this web of connections between the characters and seeing how and when they overlap, I think the timeline of events would have been much clearer if each lady had been given her own chapter.
If there's anything good to say about this book, it's that it made me appreciate the work of a good editor.
In fact, for a book whose main proposal was to be portraits of powerful and influential women, Leonie Frieda approaches her subjects with a very misogynistic view. While I understand these stories are being reconstructed from historical anecdotes and, as a result, reflect the society and values of the time, I was surprised to see that the author not only took the accounts at face value but also doubled down on the misogyny. Sure, any historian and writer is allowed to have their own points of view about events, but I would have imagined a book about influential women would offer a more nuanced perspective on them, not just "Isabella D'Este was a fat bitch" (and, believe me, even if these words aren't in this particular order in the book, that's absolutely the end message) or "Angela Borgia was incredibly stupid and had no redeeming qualities whatsoever". At most, Lucrezia Borgia and (maybe!) Lucrezia Tuornabouni get a pass, but that's only if you're kind enough to ignore the misogynistic undertones. Quite frankly, the whole book felt like listening to a very mean, very judgmental, gossip session.
The subjects' lives intertwined with each other's and Frieda chose to section the book by decade, so often we had moments where one character was in 1449 and the other was in 1441 with very little indication of this time shift. One second I was reading about Beatrice D'Este's death, and on the next she was planning a party. While I appreciate the idea of creating this web of connections between the characters and seeing how and when they overlap, I think the timeline of events would have been much clearer if each lady had been given her own chapter.
If there's anything good to say about this book, it's that it made me appreciate the work of a good editor.
December 28, 2021
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Interesting book, a drama on a grand scale sweeping tale involving corrupt monarchs, finest thinkers, brilliant artists and the greatest beauties in Christendom. . However, the title is very misleading.
A title such as The Deadly Sisterhood: A story of Women, Power and Intrigue in the Italian Renaissance promised me the stories of eight remarkable women of the Renaissance, all joined by birth, marriage and friendship and who ruled for a time in place of their men-folk - women such as Lucrezia Tornabuoni (Queen Mother of Florence, the power behind the Medici throne), Clarice Orsini (Roman princess, feudal wife), Beatrice d'Este (Golden Girl of the Renaissance), Caterina Sforza (Lioness of the Romagna), Isabella d'Este (the Acquisitive Marchesa), Giulia Farnese ('la bella', the family asset), Isabella d'Aragona (the Weeping Duchess) and Lucrezia Borgia (the Virtuous Fury), but instead, it is a book about women (an men) in the Renaissance.
Of course, major figures such as Caterina Sforza, Lucrezia Borgia and Beatrice and Isabella d'Este feature prominently (Frieda doesn't make a secret of her deep dislike for Isabella, an opinion that after once or twice mentions becomes annoying...), but there were already plenty of books about them without the need of another one added to the list. Also, in the paperback edition, there are no illustrations, despite the inclusion of a detailed list.
This said it is an interesting book - a sweeping panoramic view on the lives of some outstanding players of the Renaissance, who wielded the real power behind the throne and whose fates entwined with each other as Christendom emerged from the shadows of the calamitous 14th century.
Interesting book, a drama on a grand scale sweeping tale involving corrupt monarchs, finest thinkers, brilliant artists and the greatest beauties in Christendom. . However, the title is very misleading.
A title such as The Deadly Sisterhood: A story of Women, Power and Intrigue in the Italian Renaissance promised me the stories of eight remarkable women of the Renaissance, all joined by birth, marriage and friendship and who ruled for a time in place of their men-folk - women such as Lucrezia Tornabuoni (Queen Mother of Florence, the power behind the Medici throne), Clarice Orsini (Roman princess, feudal wife), Beatrice d'Este (Golden Girl of the Renaissance), Caterina Sforza (Lioness of the Romagna), Isabella d'Este (the Acquisitive Marchesa), Giulia Farnese ('la bella', the family asset), Isabella d'Aragona (the Weeping Duchess) and Lucrezia Borgia (the Virtuous Fury), but instead, it is a book about women (an men) in the Renaissance.
Of course, major figures such as Caterina Sforza, Lucrezia Borgia and Beatrice and Isabella d'Este feature prominently (Frieda doesn't make a secret of her deep dislike for Isabella, an opinion that after once or twice mentions becomes annoying...), but there were already plenty of books about them without the need of another one added to the list. Also, in the paperback edition, there are no illustrations, despite the inclusion of a detailed list.
This said it is an interesting book - a sweeping panoramic view on the lives of some outstanding players of the Renaissance, who wielded the real power behind the throne and whose fates entwined with each other as Christendom emerged from the shadows of the calamitous 14th century.
May 16, 2017
Ehhh. This was more "these women lived at the same time as a bunch of men who did much more interesting things". If I pick up a book on the women of the Italian Renaissance, I want to read about THEM. Tell me more about Clarice Orsini Medici instead of spending 30 pages on the Pazzi conspiracy. If I wanted to learn more about that I'd pick up a book on the subject. Likewise with Lucrezia Borgia, who regularly gets shoved aside to make place for her brother Cesare. Poor Clarice Orsini fares even worse: she basically gets introduced as "the boring one who just kept popping out children". Why even include her then?
Another thing that bothered me was the downright catty tone the author employed. We get bashed over the head with the fact that Isabella D'Este was fat and not as pretty as her sister in law Lucrezia Borgia. Did she really need to be called "rotund" and whatnot every time she is mentioned? Other people also get judged on how they looked. It's just weird.
Lastly, I had trouble keeping track of who was who. The sequence of the book is semi-chronological but it hops forwards and backwards in time depending on who is the focus. The problem is that these women lived roughly at the same time, making the 'storylines' blend together and ending with a confusing jumble. It would have been better if the author had just focused much more clearly on one woman at the time, without going off on a tangent about what another woman was doing at the same time.
Oh, and also they were not "princesses". Geez.
In summary: pick up individual biographies of these women but stay clear of this one. It's an introduction to the subject but it's way too confusing to recommend.
Another thing that bothered me was the downright catty tone the author employed. We get bashed over the head with the fact that Isabella D'Este was fat and not as pretty as her sister in law Lucrezia Borgia. Did she really need to be called "rotund" and whatnot every time she is mentioned? Other people also get judged on how they looked. It's just weird.
Lastly, I had trouble keeping track of who was who. The sequence of the book is semi-chronological but it hops forwards and backwards in time depending on who is the focus. The problem is that these women lived roughly at the same time, making the 'storylines' blend together and ending with a confusing jumble. It would have been better if the author had just focused much more clearly on one woman at the time, without going off on a tangent about what another woman was doing at the same time.
Oh, and also they were not "princesses". Geez.
In summary: pick up individual biographies of these women but stay clear of this one. It's an introduction to the subject but it's way too confusing to recommend.
March 8, 2023
Basta! Enough hours wasted trying to decipher this fiasco. I never, ever have given a 2 star rating but this book had so many flaws in conception and execution that I truly do not want anyone to spend the hours that I did trying to understand it. Every miniscule bit of intrigue possible was discussed willy-nilly with no clear breath of vision or intent. It's not even what it purports to be, as most of the copy is given over to the men in these women's lives.I thought it was me at first, but no, it's not.
There's a breath-taking Prologue, entitled "She Wolf of the Romagna", about Caterina Sforza. It's so clear and interesting, it should have been a model of the entire book. If every woman had a chapter with one stunning vision of her intrigue or bravery it would have been a fine book. But this one, with eons and eons of intricate Renaissance history of the small dukedoms and the large cities and their ruling families, their rebellions, their sexual affairs and their marriages, nope, not a book for general consumption.
***note; this book took me 5 months to finish: Be warned, enough said.
There's a breath-taking Prologue, entitled "She Wolf of the Romagna", about Caterina Sforza. It's so clear and interesting, it should have been a model of the entire book. If every woman had a chapter with one stunning vision of her intrigue or bravery it would have been a fine book. But this one, with eons and eons of intricate Renaissance history of the small dukedoms and the large cities and their ruling families, their rebellions, their sexual affairs and their marriages, nope, not a book for general consumption.
***note; this book took me 5 months to finish: Be warned, enough said.
July 25, 2025
I really did not enjoy this at all, aside from some interesting pages about Lucrezia Borgia. Maybe she's just too exciting to make completely boring?
The first thing that I disliked, and that distracted me throughout the book, was how poorly it was edited. Seriously, whoever edited this should have lost their job. I'm not sure if I just ended up with a faulty edition that was later fixed, but it was annoying. There were missing words, misused articles, etc.
Some examples:
pg. 17 "Corradino Feo had been given the post of lieutenant to his father." Nonsensical.
pg. 95 "Riario, however, refused to consent to a truce between the papacy and the and had the messenger who carried the proposal murdered." Missing word.
Second, the book itself was boring and difficult to follow. Obviously, there are many interconnected events taking place which complicates any history book, but this was especially hard to keep track of who, what, where, when, and why. I think it's possible that a different author could have rendered the same subject matter much more entertaining and easy to follow.
The first thing that I disliked, and that distracted me throughout the book, was how poorly it was edited. Seriously, whoever edited this should have lost their job. I'm not sure if I just ended up with a faulty edition that was later fixed, but it was annoying. There were missing words, misused articles, etc.
Some examples:
pg. 17 "Corradino Feo had been given the post of lieutenant to his father." Nonsensical.
pg. 95 "Riario, however, refused to consent to a truce between the papacy and the and had the messenger who carried the proposal murdered." Missing word.
Second, the book itself was boring and difficult to follow. Obviously, there are many interconnected events taking place which complicates any history book, but this was especially hard to keep track of who, what, where, when, and why. I think it's possible that a different author could have rendered the same subject matter much more entertaining and easy to follow.
June 12, 2022
A remarkable book which brought Isabella D’Este, Lucrezia Borgia, and many other prominent women involved in the turbulence and extravagance of the Italian Renaissance to life; revealing much about the times and innovations through them. I learned many things I hadn’t known; what Isabella D’Este was doing during the Siege of Rome, a curious mixture Lucrezia used to clean her hair which may have been one of shampoo’s forbearers, and the devious way Isabella managed to manipulate Cesare Borgia into handing over a work of art she coveted. The way these ladies expressed their affection for each other, betrayed each other, and vyed with each other created an interesting tapestry of power along with how they wielded it within their own realms. Engaging, lively, and filled with information; this is an excellent introduction to the time period of 1427-1527 on the Italian continent; giving them vividness and richness through the expereinces of these formidable women.
January 9, 2025
The book opens with a compelling account of the myth of Caterina Sforza at Ravaldino, only to unravel into a poorly edited sequence of male-driven political actions.
While women serve as anchors for the book’s structure and perspective, they rarely take center stage in the historical analysis. Lucrezia Borgia, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, and occasionally Isabella d’Este (though her physique is unnecessarily referenced far too often) are the only notable, albeit brief, exceptions.
The conclusion offers a glimpse of what the book aimed to achieve but ultimately fails to deliver, which I found particularly disappointing to land on. While there is value in the focus on the interrelationships of the Renaissance era's prominent families, the book falls short if its intention was to center the female perspective and their roles.
While women serve as anchors for the book’s structure and perspective, they rarely take center stage in the historical analysis. Lucrezia Borgia, Lucrezia Tornabuoni, and occasionally Isabella d’Este (though her physique is unnecessarily referenced far too often) are the only notable, albeit brief, exceptions.
The conclusion offers a glimpse of what the book aimed to achieve but ultimately fails to deliver, which I found particularly disappointing to land on. While there is value in the focus on the interrelationships of the Renaissance era's prominent families, the book falls short if its intention was to center the female perspective and their roles.
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