The Italian Garden
Subtly feminist and quite literate, this historical romance follows the entwined 16th-century lives of artistic, independent beauty Joanna Zulian and haunted, ambitious mercenary Toby Crow. After her mother dies, young, half-wild Joanna is left with her father's brother, a proper Venetian artist. Though she becomes a talented painter in her own right, she is thwarted by her gender. Her looks prove both boon and bane, dragging her into ever-higher social circles and attracting men who will see in her variously a muse, lover, pawn and obsession. Joanna later memorializes their emotions in the eponymous garden, which she divides into four squares planted with flowers appropriate to jealous, passionate, tender and obsessive love. Toby tries to escape his tormented past by becoming a soldier of fortune, but only Joanna's re-entry into his life and a surprising discovery about his birth can finally exorcise his demons. Lennox ( Till the Day Goes Down ) has a fine sense for the details of daily Renaissance life and its political, psychological and philosophical underpinnings; she also develops and employs secondary characters with admirable skill. A cut above the genre norm, this is a good choice for readers with better-than-average taste.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.