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In the waning days of Venice’s glory in the mid-1700s, Andrea Memmo was scion to one the city’s oldest patrician families. At the age of twenty-four he fell passionately in love with sixteen-year-old Giustiniana Wynne, the beautiful, illegitimate daughter of a Venetian mother and British father. Because of their dramatically different positions in society, they could not marry. And Giustiniana’s mother, afraid that an affair would ruin her daughter’s chances to form a more suitable union, forbade them to see each other. Her prohibition only fueled their desire and so began their torrid, secret seven-year-affair, enlisting the aid of a few intimates and servants (willing to risk their own positions) to shuttle love letters back and forth and to help facilitate their clandestine meetings. Eventually, Giustiniana found herself pregnant and she turned for help to the infamous Casanova–himself infatuated with her.
Two and half centuries later, the unbelievable story of this star-crossed couple is told in a breathtaking narrative, re-created in part from the passionate, clandestine letters Andrea and Giustiniana wrote to each other.
Two and half centuries later, the unbelievable story of this star-crossed couple is told in a breathtaking narrative, re-created in part from the passionate, clandestine letters Andrea and Giustiniana wrote to each other.
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Review:
It's hard to imagine a more romantic real-life story than the long, forbidden love affair of the 18th-century Venetian nobleman Andrea Memmo and a half-English beauty named Giustiniana Wynne. Andrea Di Robilant's A Venetian Affair is drawn in part from a cache of letters discovered by the author's father in his ancestral palazzo on the Grand Canal. In 1753, his ancestor Andrea Memmo had been introduced to a lovely girl of uncertain station (illegitimate, although her parents later married). The Wynnes's position was precarious enough in Venice's rigid society, and Giustiniana's mother took every step to prevent the young aristocrat from corrupting her daughter. But the two lovers began to meet in secret: exchanging letters through confederates and communicating in public through an elaborate code of nods and gestures. They even came within a few days of being married before further dark revelations about Giustiniana's family put a permanent end to their hopes. Although Memmo went on to have an illustrious career in the dying Venetian Republic, it is Giustiniana's astonishing later life that really captures the reader. A Venetian Affair provides both a rich picture of the times--including cameo appearances by that scamp, Casanova--and a convincing account of an enduring passion. --Regina Marler
About the Author:
Andrea di Robilant was born in Italy and educated at Le Rosey and Columbia University, where he specialized in international affairs. He currently lives in Rome with his wife and two children and works as a correspondent for the Italian newspaper La Stampa. This is his first book.
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From the Hardcover edition.
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- PublisherFourth Estate Ltd
- Publication date2003
- ISBN 10 0007154704
- ISBN 13 9780007154708
- BindingPaperback
- Rating
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A Venetian Affair
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ISBN 10: 0007154704
ISBN 13: 9780007154708
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Good. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine. Seller Inventory # GOR007435950
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A VENETIAN AFFAIR A True Story of Impossible Love in the Eighteenth Century
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Index, based on letters. 600gms weight; Remainder; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; 314 pages. Seller Inventory # 20921
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A VENETIAN AFFAIR
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(2004)
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ISBN 13: 9780007154708
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A Venetian Affair: A True Story Of Impossible Love In The Eighteenth Century
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Book Description Soft Cover. Condition: Very Good. Reprint. 313 pages. Book is in Very good condition throughout. Seller Inventory # 170352
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A Venetian Affair: A True Story of Impossible Love in the Eighteenth Century.
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Book Description Reprint ed. Paperback octavo, very good condition, pages lightly toned, minor edgewear. 303 pp. This story is set in 1754 in Venice. It is about Andrea Memmo, the handsome and gifted scion of a distinguished Venetian family who fell in love with a charming and illegitimate English woman, Giustiniana Wynne. The match was unthinkable in Andrea's society and family. Written by Andrea Memmo's great-great-great-great grandson after his father found letters written by Andrea to Giustiniana in the attic of the family's Venetian palazzo. Seller Inventory # 28058
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Venetian Affair:A True Story of Impossible Love in the Eighteenth Century
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Book Description Paperback. NOV03. In 1754 Andrea Memmo, the dashing and gifted scion of a distinguished Catholic family, fell in love with the beautiful Giustiniana Wynne, a match which the rules of the time forbade. Their "impossible love" was to last six tumultuous years. The lovers chased each other through peeling palazzos, ballrooms, salons, theatres and gambling dens, rubbing shoulders with Canaletto, Tiepolo and others. Increasingly desperate, they decided Giustiniana should marry so they could continue to see one another. She passed a summer flirting with the English patron of the arts, Consul Joseph Smith, while writing comical letters to her lover nearby. But Smith soon realized the deception.The affair became public, with disastrous consequences. The lovers' friend, Casanova, was imprisoned for his "pernicious" influence. Disgraced, Giustiniana left for Paris, where she launched herself into society. Another marriage was scuppered when she found herself pregnant. She gave away her child, but the rumours were unstoppable. Once again, Giustiniana was exiled, this time to London, but found that no amount of certificates confirming her station could gain her access to the circles that might deliver that elusive spouse. In 1760 Giustiniana made her way back to Italy, full of fear and longing. Good condition. Tanning. Seller Inventory # 23937532
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