The Viper of Milan: A Romance of Lombardy

About the book

Travelers approaching Milan see a beautiful landscape and a city crowned with the Visconti emblem. The people beneath those banners reveal another reality: the passage of their ruler sends them into terrified submission. Bowen develops this opening contrast into a historical romance centered on Visconti's domination and the resistance of Della Scala, whose defeat has left his wife Isotta in the conqueror's power. Political alliances and personal fidelity become inseparable, since the ruler can use affection as effectively as armed force. The narrative favors confrontations and rapidly changing dangers over a calm reconstruction of historical circumstances. Its medieval Italy is an intensely imagined world in which cruelty acquires theatrical brilliance, and loyalty must endure pressures designed precisely to turn it against itself.

• Tyranny and resistance
• Loyalty under coercion
• Splendor and cruelty

Why read it

The opening view of frightened peasants prevents the court's magnificence from being mistaken for evidence of a flourishing society.

English McClure, Phillips and Co. edition of 1906