Valperga: Or, the Life and Adventures of Castruccio, Prince of Lucca

by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Book Overview

Valperga, published in 1823 and reprinted here for the first time, was Mary Shelley's second novel, the successor to Frankenstein. Set in fourteenth-century Tuscany, the novel shares certain structural features with the popular fictions of Sir Walter Scott, most notably the novel Ivanhoe with its contrasting heroines, but Mary Shelley's work pointedly challenges Scott's model, inverting his masculinist and conservative outlook, foregrounding the lives...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195108825
• ISBN13: 9780195108828
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

i liked it

Valperga is Shelley's 1823 historical and fictional account of the life of Castruccio Castracani who lived in the 14th century. You don't need to know anything about Italian history to become immersed and interested in this political novel. Shelley's story is exciting, and the Oxford edition provides numerous notes to clarify the historical figures and situations that are a part of the story. The novel follows the life of Castruccio, from his birth and the exiling of his Ghibelline family by the Guelphs to his rise as a commanding, powerful and tyrannical prince. Shelley writes about Castruccio's political and social endeavors which intertwine with the prince's relationships with two women, the devout, loyal, and powerful Guelph, Euthanasia, and the eccentric and heretical Beatrice. This novel of loyalty, love, war, religion, politics, and the desire for power is a novel that anyone seeking out more work by Mary Shelley should read.

Interesting

I thought this novel was very interesting. It was an Italian tale written by an English authoress, who did a very fine job of it. Unfortunately, this book is not as recognized as some of Mary Shelley's other work, but hopefully it will be soon.