Free Venetsialainen Rakkaus Created By Andrea Di Robilant Provided As Digital

to the reviews I didn't expect to find a love story so much as a testimony to history and politics of the times, and how they can and did affect what might have been an easily procured relationship in modern times.
The differences between the then and the now are many and, in many ways, still the same, Thanks to modern mindsets and thus lower standards it's no longer a problem for many to marry above their 'station', nor is it necessary for an 'unsuitable' young woman to marry a much older man to obtain the freedom to take her choice of lover.
Yet the truth of thwarted love being the longest lasting prevails, Deny a couple love they will move heaven and earth to see it culminate,

I liked this book but like others felt a bit of a voyeur reading their private correspondence, As for the 'nonlovebird' parts at times it was more than a little pedantic with odd, haphazard historical tidbits tossed in, Still, it kept my interest just enough to be a good book to take about town with me while enduring public transportation.
There are no cliffhangers or exciting moments, and that's ok, It was interesting and wakes the imagination, provoking thoughts of what it might have been like to have flirted behind a fan, wait breathlessly at the window for a lover dance with Casanova.
It does as intended I think, . . it encapsulates the reader in the world of two loves that must not ever be together but must play their expected roles as only they could in theth century.



I had high expectations for this book based on the glowing reviews but only finished the book through sheer stubbornness and the hope of seeing what other reviewers saw.
I gave the bookstar only because of the history lesson, the one palatable factor in this otherwise long, dry chew!
The reader learns if they have the staying power aboutth Century European life amp the rigid social structure of the Venetian Republic.
The highlight for me was the interactions between the protagonists and Giacoma Casanova,

Di Robilant makes his nonfiction debut with the true story of the forbidden love affair between of one of his ancestors, Venetian noble Andrea Memmo andyear old Giustiniana Wynne, based upon the letters passed between the two lovers.
I found Andrea and Giustiniana to be narcisstic, fickle amp duplicitous, Their casual faithlessness made their written declarations of 'undying love' and 'soul mate' ring hollow and the actual "love letters" were monotonous in the extreme.

LOVED it! It was such a fun glimpse into the life of the wealthy and powerful in the's in Italy.
I love anything that shows the 'problems' of today are nothing new, If anything they seemed more risque back then then now! I would give examples but that will give away what happens in the book.
It starts out slow but gains momentum, About/of the way through it suddenly hit me, "They are never going to be together!" and I felt so sad for them! At the end it sounds like they both lead very interesting lives and are okay, but their love affair is fascinating.
It's fun when you recognize some of the names of famous statesmen/women and Casanova, etc,/stars. This review is based on the audio version narrated by Paul Hecht, The authors father found a trove of old letters in the attic of their familys former home in Venice, In thes di Robilants ancestor, also named Andrea, had a decadeslong affair with Giustiniana, Because she was below his social ranking, they couldnt marry, But that didnt stop them from illicitly meeting and sending letters to each other, For decades. In multiple cities and countries, For decades. And someone kept, or perhaps never bothered to throw away, many of those letters, The author has done a good job of recreating their relationship and their lives in Venice in thes, At times I had to remind myself that this wasnt a novel, The description on the back of the cover makes this book seem like it is written in novel form, but it is most definitely not.
It reads more like someone is telling you a story and they forgot to leave out all of the minute, unimportant details.
I only read aboutpages, but the information in those pages could have been reduced to about three, Unless you have times to waste, don't read this book, This book is subtitled 'A True Story of Impossible Love in the Eighteenth Century' and is an extraordinary account of two starcrossed lovers and their forbidden affair in the mideighteenth century.
Andrea Memmo is a Venetian nobleman, and Giustiniana is a beautiful young girl from a family of dubious lineage her father was an English lord, but her mother was a scandalous nobody who conceived Giustniana out of wedlock.
It's a beguiling story, destined to end tragically, which weaves together the lovers' own letters with a narrative that sets their affair in context with the times and places.
I was particulrly charmed by the character of Giustiniana, who ended up a countess and a novelist in her own right, I was bored to tears by this one, Its the nonfiction account of a love affair that took place in theth century in Venice, The author wrote the book after his father found a collection of letters between their ancestor, a Venetian nobleman, and a young woman.
It started out strong and quickly pulled me in, but soon the story was bogged down with a nonstop back and forth.


The melodrama between the lovers, the restraints of their society and their different social classes made the whole thing impossible.
I felt like the book could have been much shorter, but the author wanted to include every scrap of correspondence he had between the two.


BOTTOM LINE: The story is interesting because its nonfiction, but it should have been much shorter, What should be a fastpaced love story quickly became a tedious tugofwar, This novel, based on recovered letters between young Venetian lovers, is an interesting illustration of the social and political nuances of eighteenthcentury Europe Venice in particular.

The lovers meet at the respective ages ofand, . . the girl is an "inappropriate" choice for

a future political leader of Venice, Their relationship drives the plot, yet I couldn't muster sympathy for them, They were young, passionate, stubborn enough to take risks that would ruin their future, . . yet I was not able to buy into the depth of love that drove them to such lengths,
I recommend this for it's historical perspective alone Casanova is a significant player, but not for the romance,
The book is an entertaining account of a forbidden love affair due to a difference social class, I think that Di Robilant did an excellent job conveying the forbidden nature of's that added a barrier but also fire to a love affair a man from a patrician family and a girl with questionable nobility.


Andrea Memmo is a member of one of Venice's prominent patrician families and heir apparent to his uncles political aspirations.
Andrea was a child of the enlightenment and had a natural selfconfidence that came from being a member of the entitled elite.
As a boy, it was drilled into him that duty to Venetian Republic and family comes before all else including matters of marriage.
As such, when he met Giustiniana Wynne, an intelligent avid reader, charming spirit with great looks in Consul Smith cosmopolitan palazzo, he knew it would be forbidden love affair for him.
For her part, Giustiniana isyears his junior a lesser noble with an overprotective mother fell madly and deeply in love with Andrea.
As with most small towns, Venice gossip was rampant thus Anna Wynne with her wild youth tried doubly hard to keep their families integrity intact.
I think the reason Guistiniana held Andrea in such high regard is not only was he her first lover but it happened during her youth as her hormones were raging and insurmountable obstacles just to meet with each other.


Although they both knew they had no future together because of their differing station in life, young love is such that is allencompassing and allconsuming that they did not care what the future held and instead concentrated in the here and now to the exclusion of all else.
Their affair was heightened by the illicitness of it, the fact that Anna Wynne had spies trying to prevent their coupling combined with the anticipation of preparing for their next encounter as well as passionate jealousy on both sides when they were not together.
In the jealousy department, Giustiniana was at a disadvantage because she was a girl and thus had nothing to do but think of Andrea possible infidelities to her because she had limited mobility and could not work.
I imagine that an illicit affair such as theirs without the possibility of continuity would make all the more concentrate on that to the exclusion of everything else.


The death of Smith's wife provided Anna Wynne a perfect opportunity to advance the fortune of the family and Guistiniana the perfect cover for her affair with Andrea.
I find it amazing how marriage of alliance used to produce affairs of the heart and it was discreetly condoned by society.
Although it provided the ideal cover for both of them, Guistiniaana is so in love with Andrea that she constantly thinks of him and was willing to deceive both Smith and Anna.
So, while she performed as if she was fond of Smith, she worried about the longevity of her affair with Andrea, While Anna was initially pissed off about the affair, when she found out, she agreed on a pact with Andrea that she would not interfere with their affair if Guistiniana was successfully married to Smith.
But in the end, the lovers love could not conceal their intense desire for each other,

Servants were really in a precarious situation because although they want to be helpful to the children, if they were caught in compromising situation their masters would fire them.


When the Smith proposal fell through because of the lovers indiscretion, Andrea thought of losing Guistiniana made him pursue marriage as his final recourse to keep them together.
Meanwhile, Guistiniana doubting the possibility of their marriage preferred to live in their passion as a daytoday affair, Her hopelessness in the situation even went so far as to flirt and make out with a Frenchman,

Marriage contracts used to be a pain between families not individuals, While Memmo's were negotiating with the Wynnes, Anna encourages her daughter to flirt and be seen with other men because she knew that once her past of being disgraced by a Greek suitor was known the marriage contract would not go threw because of the shame it would bring both families if it were dragged out in court.
During their negotiations, Andrea combined sexual playfulness with seriousness of duty in their proposed marriage,
Since the marriage contract on the sins of Anna, she decided to uproot her family and moved to London so that the respectability of the family would be preserved.
Because of the hopelessness of the situation, Guisitiniana had brief affair with someone else and came to regret it terribly, Her cheating diminished Andreas respect for her, But when forced never to see each other again, they decided to try to scheme and dupe an unsuspecting man of income such as French tax collector into marrying Guisitiniana in order to carry on an affair.


The danger of treating an ex as a friend right after the break up is that she may still in love with you.
It is better to cut all ties of communication and let time and distance due the job of transforming the lover relationship into a mutual and true friendship.


I am glad though she still has wistful thoughts about getting back together with Andrea, her words and action signal she is ready to move on.
With the numerous affairs that Andrea is probably engaged in considering his history as a rake and his prominent stature as the member of the ruling elite, Guistiniana should not feel guilty about her own indiscretion except that it produced a boy of questionable paternity.
Because having a bastard used to mean disastrous consequences for not only the woman's security but also her family's, it is no wonder she sought an abortion.
This is the reason it is prudent for antiabortionist to get rid of the shame of premarital sex so single motherhood would not be seen as such a shameful event.


To this end, she sought the help of Casanova who first tried to get her an abortion but latter used his wiles to convince Guistiniana that the only way that the abortion potion would work is if he would "ejaculate" in her.
I thought this was a hilarious trick by Casanova to satisfy his lust for her, Having failed in her attempts for an abortion, she decided to seek Casanova help in finding her a nunnery in which she can have the baby silently.
At least, Casanova came through for Guistiniana in finding a convent for her to give birth in and not betraying her trust of why she forsook her marriage to La Poupliniere in order to give birth to a bastard.


Surprisingly enough, Casanova comes out of the book not only as the famous womanizer and a corrupting influence of the Wynne's young children that he is but also a person who is well versed in financial creativity.
For example, he set up a lottery system in France so the French war effort would continue meanwhile guaranteeing himself a stable source of income.
Furthermore, he acted as the government's investment banker by brokering a deal with the Dutch in order to sell France's rapidly depreciating bonds in order to buy more stable national securities as well as a steady cash flow to finance the war effort.


Following Andrea's strategic plan, Guistiniana went after La Poupliniere in order to get him to marry her, At first, it was pure vanity that led her to use her charm in order to get him to go after her to win the heart of the richest eligible elderly bachelor in all of Paris.
While she was flattered in achieving her goal for her to get him interested in marrying her, she did not like the political intrigue that surrounded La Poupliniere's household and after a restful stay at the convent no longer sought to trade her "happiness for money.
" For his part, Poupliniere liked the melancholy in her that mirrored his own after his wife cheated on him and died of cancer.
Knowing that his household was against the marriage, he sought to fast track the marriage but the scandal that was caused by Guistiniana disappearance in Parisienne society dashed the possibility of marrying her forever.
When one is old and rich, why not marry for looks and enjoy a hedonistic lifestyle with someone who is younger before once certain demise

When the Wynne's escaped Paris after Guistiniana scandal, they moved to London for a year.
While there, Guistiniana never felt welcomed by the English and would have probably continued pining for Andrea from afar while he carried out with his numerous affairs, if it not for a courtship by a Prussian Baron diplomat who felt for Guistiniana suffering a similar loss of affairs of the heart that he himself recently suffered.
Although Guistiniana found comfort in the Baron's sexual embrace and the security that he could be her trusted confidante, they did not have the same fiery intensity that she was accustomed to with Andrea.
I wonder to what degree her pining for Andrea was due to his unattainability vs the Baron's attainability, The Baron was right to assume that her relationship with Andrea was not over, It was not until her reported departure for Venice that Andrea freaked out to what her return would mean to both to them.
His ambivalent stance in rekindling the passion for each other, made Guisitiniana want to seek only friendship for each other,

After Guistiniana return to Venice, she accepted an offer for marriage from an Austrian ambassadoryears her senior a Count Orsini.
This marriage allowed her comfortable stipend upon his death, Once he died, Guistiniana returned to Venice a "countess" with a stipend that allowed her to live comfortably and independently from any other man she did not like.
She was also able to travel throughout Europe, She attracted to her house learned men such as scientist, writers, painters, and foreign nationals and became a celebrated writer herself, In the end she accomplished what she sought out being financially independent to do whatever she wanted while still a young age of early's.


Andrea became a prominent Venetian politician who was pissed off that he could not save his Venetian Republic from decay from within due to its inability to innovate their governmental institutions.
Andrea took another longterm mistress and after that was done began womanizing again, When he finally married and had two daughters, he became a devoted father to the two girls, "his only true love, " At least, he married one of his daughters to someone she loved from a prominent family, Although he was the last great statesman of the Republic, he died a poor cynical man,

War hampers trade so if Romney wants war with Iran to appease Israel, he better be ready for a really long American recession due to the spiking energy prices just as Venetian trade was hampered by theyear war.
Theyear war brought Louis XV extreme unpopularity due to his excessive taxation to finance that war and his crackdown on dissent.
War is an expensive affair and unfortunately for the French they did not have the luxury of their money treated as gold like the dollar is today.
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