Do You like book Carnevale (2001)?
I can't decide if I loved or hated this book - it was beautifully written as ever by Lovric and so well researched, the lives of Cassanova and Lord Byron so well told, but... it was long and drawn out. It does read like a classic and it's romantic - you live through Cecilia's passion and her pain in each page... laboured to the point where I wanted to tell her 'he's just a man!', but then you remember we are in 18th Century Venice and this is the city of passion - and Carnevale! Read it, but read with patience and you will be rewarded. I think actually I did love it, like an old husband who you've grown attached to over time and you'll miss when he's gone. Sweet dreams Cassanova, the cat, Lord Byron, and adoring Cecilia.
—Caroline
This book is very well written, M.R. Lovric makes the sights and smells of Venice come alive, but she loses track around the middle, starts going in circles like a dog chasing its own tale, and the story just gets stuck. You can cut, at least, 100 pages and not miss out on anything important!The story is a journey through decadent Venice from the end of the eighteenth century to the fall of the Republic at Napoleon’s hands. In 1782, the young Cecilia Cornaro is willingly kidnapped by the irresistible Casanova and, with him, discovers not only the joys of lovemaking, but also her gift for painting. As Cecilia blooms into a renowned painter, we follow the turbulent story of Venice´s greatest lover, from his grand days of adulation up to his downfall and subsequent exile. Torn apart by fate, Cecilia drowns her sorrows in her painting and her fame crosses borders, right up to Albania, where she is invited to paint the royal family. Here she meets the cruel and selfish Lord Byron, her second great love, but if she is not careful, this love may destroy her…Like I said above, this book is poetry, its art, it’s a great History lesson, but the author, in certain parts, just gives you an overdose of melodrama which is hard to swallow. None of the characters are likeable – Casanova is a decrepit old man who lives with his head in the clouds and just has no sense of practical life; Byron is cruel, selfish and narcissistic; and Cecilia is the perfect sadomasochist, who doesn´t care for the feelings of her family and many lovers, but goes on a pathetic path of self-destruction with Byron, where she just loses any trace of self-respect. And this is the part which nearly made me put the book aside. There are way too many pages of never-ending sorrow and grief and bitterness over the notorious Lord Byron. Ok, we get the picture! If it weren´t for this, I would give this book a steady 4.
—Margaret
I know; the story could hve been so much, but reminded me of a clean, beautiful, but stagnant pond. The chracters were the draw for me, and the middle was the bit where I found inconsistencies; but by the end I was enchanted, if not completely, as much as I was disturbed.
—Alia