The Second Duchess

Table of Contents

 

 

“Utterly mesmerizing, captivating from the first page. Thick with shadowy court intrigues and lush period detail,
The Second Duchess
is a Renaissance masterpiece come to life.”

—Deanna Raybourn, author of
Dark Road to Darjeerling

 

“Robert Browning’s classic poem ‘My Last Duchess’ provides the starting point for Loupas’s winning debut set in Renaissance Italy.... Readers will warm immediately to the clever, intelligent Barbara, while the demanding, sometimes brutal Alfonso makes an intriguing man of mystery.

—
Publishers Weekly

 

“I have rarely read a historical novel or mystery that I as fully, gladly inhabited as I did
The Second Duchess
. I felt actual regret as I neared its end because I did not want to part company with Elizabeth Loupas’s complex, engaging, intriguing characters. With their world created in deep, believable detail around them, they were true to their time and place, thereby taking me well out of mine, which is the ideal (and all too rare) accomplishment of any work of historical fiction.”

—Margaret Frazer, author of the Dame Frevisse Mystery series and the Joliffe Mystery series

 

“Rich in historical detail and all the dangerous grandeur of court life in Renaissance Italy. Think
The Other Boleyn Girl
meets
Rebecca
.”

—C. S. Harris, author of the Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery series

 

“Both a fascinating literary mystery and a rich historical novel,
The Second Duchess
is a feast of vibrant characters and a lush setting. Elizabeth Loupas has opened for us a lost world of ducal power and decadence, and yet made her resilient Renaissance heroine one that a modern woman can admire and root for.
Bravo!
”

—Karen Harper, author of
Mistress Shakespeare
and
The Irish Princess

 

“The historical mystery at the heart of this excellent novel kept me turning pages late into the night even as I admonished myself to slow down and savor the feast for the senses laid out on each page. The historical details and warring political factions of Renaissance Italy were convincingly and elegantly delivered, the story compelling, and the voice utterly intriguing. Hard to believe such a finely crafted tale is the work of a debut novelist.”

—Brenda Rickman Vantrease, author of
The Illuminator
and
The Heretic’s Wife

 

“I’ve always loved Robert Browning’s poem ‘My Last Duchess,’ and the way Loupas springboards from that is a delight. I can hear the voice of Browning’s duke in her Alfonso, and the way she departs from it into a nice little mystery is very satisfying. The clothes, the manners, the food and decorations! She creates such a vivid sense of the magnificence of an Italian Renaissance court with her tissues of silver and braids of emeralds, silk stomachers and damascene daggers, candied angelica and rice pudding rolled in cinnamon; festivals, hunts, and balls all the more splendid because of the poisons and thumbscrews and murder going on underneath. Alfonso is fascinating . . . but Barbara is the jewel here. Her courage and candor seduce the reader as well as her enigmatic new husband. Applause for Elizabeth Loupas. I loved it.”

—Cecelia Holland, author of
The Secret Eleanor

NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY

Published by New American Library, a division of

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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

First Printing, March 2011

Copyright © Elizabeth Loupas, 2011

Illustrated map of Ferrara by Don Huff Design and Illustration (
donhuff.com
) All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:

 

Loupas, Elizabeth.

The second duchess/Elizabeth Loupas. p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-47845-5

1. Barbara, Archduchess of Austria, 1539-1572—Fiction. 2. Alfonso I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, 1476-1534—Fiction. 3. Nobility—Italy—Fiction. 4. Ferrara (Italy)—History—16th century—

Fiction. I. Title.

PS3612.O825S43 2011

813’.6—dc22 2010030896

 

Set in Bembo

 

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