Queen Bee of Tuscany: The Redoubtable Janet Ross
Janet Ross was the type of woman we’re trained not to expect in history: someone who, in an earlier era, conducted her life with a freedom and breadth of experience we associate with women in the late twentieth century. Born in 1842 into an eccentric and well-traveled family, she married young, lived in Egypt and Italy, and eventually settled in Florence. Along the way, she rubbed shoulders with many of the luminaries of her day, wrote, painted, raced horses, managed estates, and made her home the hub of the Anglo-Florence community. The small anecdotes that make up most of this history—attendance at a ball, renovating a new house, a visit from Mark Twain, the comings and goings of minor figures and their feuds—should be of interest to cultural historians of the time period. It will be of less interest for general readers looking for a rousing yarn. --Lynn Weber