In the Company of the Courtesan

Set in the 1500s in Venice, Dunant gives us a sometimes raunchy, sometimes touching and always realistic view of the world in this era. The book is written by the partner/manager of a gorgeous "courtesan" which I like to think of as more like a geisha than a prostitute, but make no mistake, our heroine is a high end prostitute and entertainer of rich men of the era. The partner is an extremely likable, insightful, resourcesful dwarf who is well aware of his position in life as a freak and sometimes entertainer and court jestor. I laughed out loud many times at his views and comments about himeself, other people's reactions to him as well as his general take on things that works today. The partnership of the two works extremely well as they escape without much but their lives from Rome which is under siege and then move to Venice to carefully try to rebuild their whole business. Our courtesan has lost her hair and her confidence. With the help of a blind healer, they find their way back into business as usual and then the fun begins with the various and sundry wealthy clients, friends from the past, etc. There is humor, there is wisdom about human sexuality, there is history and there is a great and touching story.

This book was so good that I read it in one sitting. In this book Dunant returns to the place and time she does best: Renaissance Italy. This time the story takes place in Rome and Venice in 1527, and focuses upon Fiametta Bianchi and her dwarfish servant, Bucino Teodaldo. In the Company of the Courtesan is told from his point of view. The book opens in Rome. Fiametta, a successful courtesan, leaves the city with her servant and goes to Venice, the city that was famous in this time period for the courtesans that lived there. Venice is a decadent city, filled with sin and vice, and it is through this that Bucino and his mistress must wade in order for her to be successful in her chosen profession. Along the way we run into a variety of interesting characters: a servant with sticky fingers; a Jew who lives in the Jewish ghetto of Venice; a blind healer called "La Draga;" a Turk who is fascinated by Bucino's size; the poet Aretino; the artist Titian; and a variety of Fiametta's clients. Many of the characters were, of course, real people; others, of course, were not. The story that Dunant creates, which mixes what really happened with fiction, is breathtaking. This book is well-written, and very much like The Birth of Venus, Dunant's 2004 novel that is set in Florence at the end of the fifteenth century. In the Company of the Courtesan has the same kind of qualities, but is a great book in its own way.

When Rome is overrun in 1597 by the armies of the Holy Roman Empire, the entire city is laid waste, the streets littered with the carnage of defeat, the victorious troops sating themselves on booty and blood. In one villa, the walls and cupboards stripped of the most valuable items and buried beneath the stench of the pigsty, a feast is prepared, a respite of welcome in the midst of chaos. A Roman courtesan, Fiammetta Bianchini, consort to cardinals, assuages the appetites of marauders to gain their protection, offering a welcome befitting a conquering army, with the aid of her invaluable companion, the dwarf Bucino. For a time, Fiammetta's ploy is successful, until the second wave of soldiers arrives, the Lutheran reformers who descend upon the villa. Stripped of everything but the clothes on their backs, Fiammetta's long, golden curls shorn to pulpy patches on her scalp, Fiammetta and Bucino take to the roads with a stream of refuges. Fiammetta swallows her jewels, once prized from their settings, as future security, the pair returning to the land of the courtesan's birth, Venice, the great merchant city-state. Judiciously selling the gems, Fiammetta plans to reestablish herself, Bucino as her partner, relying on the salves of La Draga, a deformed blind healer Fiammetta has known since childhood, to restore the extensive damage to her body and spirit. In the course of her transformation, Fiammetta relies on La Draga's curatives, while Bucino familiarizes himself with the city and the characters who will so greatly affect their fortunes: a generous Turk, Abdulla Pashna, who offers to transport Bucino to his magical homeland; an accomplished artist who paints the beauties of Venice; Pietro Arentino, a writer from Rome attempting to mend former enmities and form a new alliance; the Jewish pawnbroker from the ghetto who buys the jewels and sets in motion the denouement of all Fiammetta and Bucino's carefully laid plans; and the anonymous but powerful faces of the officials who rule the city with an iron fist, engaging in commerce while protecting the illusion of virtue and godliness. Set in the 16th century Venice of privilege and poverty, the intricacies of survival are shown through Bucino's eyes, he of small stature who relies on his instincts, urging Fiammetta's recovery only to see her fall victim to the courtesan's greatest enemy, that which she cannot have. It is Bucino who uncovers the ultimate betrayal that threatens to undo all their labors and return them to the streets, he who mulls the moral implications of a city steeped in sin while proclaiming virtue, he who must face his own great flaw, born of cynicism. This is historical fiction at its finest, the colorful characters playing on a stage of political machinations bred of prayer and power, men who indulge their senses with the excesses of wealth and the brokers who trade on their weaknesses: "Wherever there is public virtue there also is private vice." Dunant's novel is multi-la

With this, her second foray into historical fiction Sarah Dunant gives her readers another brilliantly written novel. Obviously well researched, Dunant's depiction of the Italian Renaissance setting is so realistic as to be magical. She transports the reader to 1527 and keeps them there for the duration. The story is that of Fiametta, the titular courtesan and her dwarf companion, Bucino. They lose everything they hold dear, and barely escape with their lives when Rome is sacked and destroyed around them. Fiametta's legendary beauty was damaged in an encounter with "Lutheran harpies", and the two voyage to her matriarchal home in Venice to rest and recover. Sadly Fiametta's mother has long since died and almost nothing remains of her fortune. With the help of La Draga an eerily blind, crippled healer, Fiametta is nursed back to health and works hard to regain her status as the high-class companion to the wealthy and titled men of her time. All is well until an accident involving Bucino sends him seeking after La Draga. To her misfortune, his discovery of her secret ends in an accusation of witchcraft and subsequent trial. Dunant's Venice is truly compelling, shown to the reader by the unusually astute observer Bucino, narrator of this story. At times he is companion, helper, business manager, confidant and exotic plaything. He uses his status as a dwarf to full advantage, even pretending to be a drooling idiot to further their cause. He is quite a sympathetic character; one can't help but like him for his loyalty to his mistress. He stands by her through thick and thin, even when there is considerable danger to his own skin. Indeed his loyalty makes him reject an offer that, had he accepted would have set him up in luxury. Only once does Fiametta push him to the breaking point. She falls in love with a young client, and starts giving him freely what Bucino as her pimp thinks should be paid. The courtesan Fiametta is both vain and shallow, excellent qualities in a woman who lives by her beauty. Under her flighty facade she has a core of steel, to have survived not only the rape of Rome, but also the setbacks that awaited her in the expected haven of Venice. Although Fiametta is a slightly lesser character, her relationship with Bucino is the backbone of the story and the heart of the book; all events in some way revolve around her. La Draga the mysterious blind healer, has a terrible secret, this and her powers leave a permanent mark on the courtesan and her dwarf. Dunant's characters are absolutely irresistible. This fascinating novel is well fleshed out with historical figures and events. Even La Draga herself is a real person, although some liberties are admittedly taken with her story. All in all, an exceptionally satisfying way to wile away an afternoon or two.