Bomarzo

By Manuel Mujica Lainez

Book Overview

" Bomarzo] is a novel that will make any reader happy.... A] novel to be read aloud, with the whole family gathered around." --Roberto Bola o

A lavishly written gothic historical fantasy novel that centers around Pier Francesco Orsini, the tortured duke of Bomarzo and creator of the Italian town's famously bizarre "Garden of the Monsters."

Forty miles north of Rome, near the village of Bomarzo, Pier Francesco Orsini created a park of monstrous statuary in which the nightmares of the Renaissance stand preserved in stone. In Bomarzo, Manuel Mujica Lainez--one of the major Argentine novelists of the twentieth century--re-creates this dark and legendary duke as a briliant memoirist. From beyond the grave, in a city that sounds suspiciously like Mujica Lainez's own Buenos Aires, Orsini--who now knows his Freud and has read Lolita--looks back at the trials and travails of his sixteenth-century life.

Bomarzo is a historical novel in the grand manner, a first-person portrait of a hunchback bullied by his family and determined to prove a villain. It is also a commentary on such historical fictions. But above all it is an immersive story told in a sumptuous style--like one of Poe's Italian tales rewritten by Proust--as Gregory Rabassa's translation beautifully conveys.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1681379414
• ISBN13: 9781681379418
• Release Date: August 2025
• Publisher: New York Review of Books
• Length: 688 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 5.0" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

too many words

Mujica's writing seems to be a homage to the spanish language. The way he writes may, at times, be a little overwhelming, but if yoou really take the time to read it, this book will completely engulf and please you.... he is so musical in his writting that you may feel a little drowsy after reading one of his descriptions.... I've never read a book like this. It is a tale inspired by a visit to Bomarzo, but the Sacro Bosco is merely the starting point for a beautiful painting of the renacentist period. Here you will find Cellini, Miguel Angel, the Medicis, Cervantes, Lepanto, Pietro Aretino, Paracelsus.... The best "history" novel I've read so far, and something really inspiring. Read this book. And if you want it in italian, just go to Bomarzo and ask for it...

Outstanding

One of the best books I've ever read. An unbelivable piece of writing by Mujica Lainez.

It's a wonderful novel!

Bomarzo es una novela impresionante. Enciclopédica en su saber, hermosísima en su texto, inolvidable en su impacto. Narra la vida (inmortal) del duque Pier Franceso Orsini, señor de Bomarzo, nacido en 1512 y muerto (¿?) al parecer en mayo de 1572, en Italia. Bomarzo es un paisaje renacentista impecable y su construcción novelística es superlativa. Hay que leer a Bomarzo, no por obligación, sino por placer.

Great work of art

Incredibly, this author is argentinian. The tone, ambientation, and rythm suggest a writer with a closer relationship with the tale itself. A fine narration with the unique perspective of a talented homosexual of upper class upbringing. Not comparable to Capote or others that could be associated by mere characteristics. It is History, and it is a novel. Undoubtedly a masterpiece.

An Incredible Vision of the Italian Renacentism

It's an amazing description of the Italian renacentism, which combines history, fiction, adventure, romanticism and drama. You won't feel disappointed if you read it. The knowledge of Mujica Lainez is more than overwhelming. I strongly recomend this excellent exponent of the Argentine literature.