Download The Devil Maria d'Avalos djvu

This is a fabulously written story set in the 1500's in Naples that is a true story in novel form. I could not put this down. It spins a story of Maria d'Avalon who had a happy first marriage to the man of her dreams had a child & lost both to death. Being noble she had a second marriage than a 3rd to Carlo Guesaldo who was a crazy man of nd tempers bisexual & who flogged himself on a regular basis. He was also a master composer. He hated Maria & when she found happiness with her lover the Duke of Andria he ended of killing them both. Karma has a way of coming back to deal with people like him. He was related to the papacy that was very corrupt at this time. A tragic story but I loved it!!

I only found this book through chance. It doesn't come up as a recommended book ever and I had never heard of this author before. I found it because I really enjoyed one of Judith Loriente's other reviews and started flipping through her profile and looking at books she rated highly. And after finishing it, I decided to also post a review so, if anyone ever flips through my reviews on the off chance of finding a new book to read, this book may find another reader.

I love historical fiction and this book takes place in a time and place that I haven't found any other books about. It seems like if you read exclusively historical fiction to receive an education, you would think Italy pretty much disappeared after the Borgias. We see a few people come from Italy, but almost nothing takes place there. So I was very excited about this book, which is about Maria d'Avalos, the most beautiful woman in Naples and a daughter of the powerful and wealthy d'Avalos family. As this book starts, Maria is arriving back in Naples after being widowed a second time. Her first husband was Federigo Carafa who was the heir of the powerful Carafa family and her daughter with him, Beatrice, is her only surviving child. Now her family is rushing to arrange yet another marriage for her, this time to the heir of the Gesualdo family which is the final of the three most powerful families in Naples. In other words, Maria is very well-connected. Carlo Gesualdo, her third husband, is a bit of an enigma. He is a strong patron of music and a very talented composer. He is also given to strong mood swings and has a terrible temper. The description of this book gives you the final act in the first line. Carlo murders Maria and her lover, not in a jealous passion, but in a coldly planned homicide that rocks the three most powerful families of Naples. So we know the ending going in. This is the story of the people behind the scandal and it is mostly very well done.

I did see some issues. I loved the first two-thirds of this book. Really, the "action" of this book doesn't start until the final third so the first parts are taken up with immersive descriptions of Naples and Carlo's music and the development of the characters. I enjoyed this slower development and there is a lot of really interesting history that is covered but some people might find it too slow for them. Strangely, I disliked the more climactic part of the book. Once Maria starts her affair, I really stopped liking her. Before she was a person who could be quite naive but was also just a good human. She cared about her family and genuinely respected Carlo for his talents. She was good with him when he was in a rage and there are some great moments where they appreciate each other's gifts with color and design and art. Then she starts her affair and becomes a jealous harpy. I guess this is supposed to be the difference between a grand passion and relationship built on respect? I found her relationship with Carlo to be well developed and, while Maria longed for love, it always seemed like she and Carlo truly had a lot in common. With her lover, they spend their time in the bedroom and while the book may mention that they spend hours talking, you don't see their connection as you do with Maria and Carlo.

The other issue I had was the final few chapters morph into a strange mix of historical fiction novel, true crime book and nonfiction. It is very weird. I was reading along, enjoying the story and...I can't even describe it but if you have ever read a true crime novel or watched one of those shows you know the type of narration I'm talking about. It involves a lot of foreshadowing and everything now has a precise time and is very step by step. Like "At exactly midnight" or "eight hours later" when everything previously was in terms of days or months. Which is kind of funny since this is true crime but it seems out of place in a historical fiction novel. It just totally yanked me out of the story. And then, after the murders, it all of a sudden turns nonfiction and talks about the painting made by the Carafa family of Maria and the public outcry after the murders and gives two examples of poems written about this event. Then it switches again and we are back in Carlo's mind for awhile until it starts skipping years and hitting the important events of the rest of his life which would have been a perfect author's note but is bizarrely still part of the story.

I really enjoyed this book up until the end where the entire narrative style just seemed to switch multiple times. However, despite that, it is an impressively researched book and describes events and people that I didn't even know existed. So, if you are interested in this time period, I would highly recommend this book despite its flaws.

This is a historical novel that's in the first ranks of historical novels - about as far from the sloppily-researched, cringeworthy sort as you can get. Perhaps that's not surprising, given that the author is an art historian who travelled to Italy to research it. It's also based on a true story: the murder in 1590 of the illustrious Neapolitan aristocrat Maria d'Avalos by her demented genius of a husband, the composer Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa.

According to the preface, Hammond's interest in Maria was sparked by a Werner Herzog documentary about Gesualdo (presumably Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices - a film by Werner Herzog). Gesualdo was, however, Maria's third husband, and in her past were two other arranged marriages, and a tragic and triumphant life as one of the most prominent Neapolitan women of her day. Hammond tells her story rivetingly, and anyone interested in historical novels and/or the sixteenth century would be well advised not to miss it.