Audiobook8 hours
The Borgias: Celebrated Crimes, Book 1
Written by Alexandre Dumas
Narrated by Robert Bethune
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
To paraphrase the note from the translator, The Celebrated Crimes of Alexandre Dumas père was not written for children. The novelist has spared no language—has minced no words—to describe violent scenes of violent times.
In this, the first of the series, Dumas tells the luridly sexy, amazingly violent, and strikingly amoral story of the three most famous members of the Borgia family - Pope Alexander VI, Lucrezia, and above all Cesare. Never one to allow a mere fact to stand in the way of a good story, Dumas puts all the most sensational accusations made against the Borgias--mostly by their enemies--to the fullest use, which certainly distorts history, but makes for a great tale. Also, he often takes the novelist's approach, giving us details of scenes for which there is no historical record--we are given, for example, a wonderful description of the look on Cesare Borgia's face as he breaks out of his Spanish prison, something not even Cesare himself could have seen, and he was alone at the time. Again, as the translator notes, "The careful, mature reader, for whom the books are intended, will recognize, and allow for, this fact." We're reading Dumas here, not Tuchman or Toynbee.
Dumas gives us a sweeping tale of simony, betrayal, connivance, conquest both military and sexual, and above all death - on the battlefield in war, on the streets in brutal murder, in the dark by strangulation, at the table by poison. It is a tale of events and personalities that shook Europe and created the modern myth of the Renaissance prince, so well described by Machiavelli.
Enjoy!
Note: The modern reader will see that certain passages in the book are marked by unmistakable anti-Semitism. As it is both useless to deny, and worthwhile to remember, that anti-Semitism was a cultural norm in Dumas' times, those passages have been left as written.
In this, the first of the series, Dumas tells the luridly sexy, amazingly violent, and strikingly amoral story of the three most famous members of the Borgia family - Pope Alexander VI, Lucrezia, and above all Cesare. Never one to allow a mere fact to stand in the way of a good story, Dumas puts all the most sensational accusations made against the Borgias--mostly by their enemies--to the fullest use, which certainly distorts history, but makes for a great tale. Also, he often takes the novelist's approach, giving us details of scenes for which there is no historical record--we are given, for example, a wonderful description of the look on Cesare Borgia's face as he breaks out of his Spanish prison, something not even Cesare himself could have seen, and he was alone at the time. Again, as the translator notes, "The careful, mature reader, for whom the books are intended, will recognize, and allow for, this fact." We're reading Dumas here, not Tuchman or Toynbee.
Dumas gives us a sweeping tale of simony, betrayal, connivance, conquest both military and sexual, and above all death - on the battlefield in war, on the streets in brutal murder, in the dark by strangulation, at the table by poison. It is a tale of events and personalities that shook Europe and created the modern myth of the Renaissance prince, so well described by Machiavelli.
Enjoy!
Note: The modern reader will see that certain passages in the book are marked by unmistakable anti-Semitism. As it is both useless to deny, and worthwhile to remember, that anti-Semitism was a cultural norm in Dumas' times, those passages have been left as written.
Author
Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) was one of the literary lights of France during the Romantic Revolution, his complete works eventually filling over three hundred volumes. George Bernard Shaw described him as "one of the best storytellers…that ever lived." The Man in the Iron Mask and The Three Musketeers are available from Brilliance Audio.
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Titles in the series (17)
The Man in the Iron Mask: Celebrated Crimes, book 11 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Marquise de Ganges: Celebrated Crimes, Book 18 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Joan of Naples: Celebrated Crimes, book 10 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Martin Guerre: Celebrated Crimes, book 12 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Antonin Derues: Celebrated Crimes, book 8 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Marquise de Brinvilliers: Celebrated Crimes, Book 16 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Countess of Saint-Geran: Celebrated Crimes, book 14 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ali Pasha: Celebrated Crimes book 13 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Murat: Celebrated Crimes, book 15 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Borgias: Celebrated Crimes, Book 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Vaninka: Celebrated Crimes, Book 17 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Massacres of the South: Celebrated Crimes, Book 3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUrbain Grandier: Celebrated Crimes, Book 6 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Karl-Ludwig Sand: Celebrated Crimes, Book 5 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nisida: Celebrated Crimes, Book 7 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mary Stuart: Celebrated Crimes: Book 4 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cenci: Celebrated Crimes, Book 2 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
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Reviews for The Borgias
Rating: 4.666666666666667 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
3 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5fun and interesting history. Remember it's written by a novelist so it includes possibly salacious stories.