Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Leonardo's Swans
    Unavailable
    Leonardo's Swans
    Unavailable
    Leonardo's Swans
    Audiobook13 hours

    Leonardo's Swans

    Written by Karen Essex

    Narrated by Kathe Mazur

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    LEONARDO'S SWANS is the story of the powerful Este sisters, Beatrice, Duchess of Milan, and Isabella, Marchesa of Mantua, as they compete for the affections of Italy's most influential prince, the Duke of Milan, and for the larger prize, to be immortalized in oil by his court painter and engineer, Leonardo da Vinci. Sexy, inspiring, and intelligent, her story of love, intrigue, and art is truly unforgettable.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJan 10, 2006
    ISBN9781415931653
    Unavailable
    Leonardo's Swans

    Related to Leonardo's Swans

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      ‘The Stolen Lady’ Imagines How The ‘Mona Lisa’ Came To France

      Nov 3, 2021

      Today, the most celebrated Florentine lady in the world sits protected behind bulletproof glass in a temperature-controlled room in the palatial Louvre Museum in Paris. She receives countless love letters and flowers, which arrive in her very own mai

      2 min read

    • Article

      Beyond the Palio

      Oct 19, 2022

      Siena: The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval City By Jane Stevenson Apollo £20 The best place to watch the Palio di Siena is by the start. For my first time – decades ago – I secured a good vantage point at that spot, by clambering on to a fence that

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Madness of Venice

      Apr 2, 2018

      1. I lived in Venice for two years, and I hated it. In conversations I used euphemisms and turns of phrase (among my favorite either you love it or hate it! and it’s a… difficult city), but I was lying through my teeth. I fucking hated it

      10 min read

    • Article

      Stranger Than Fiction

      Apr 12, 2024

      Stranger Than Fiction
      5 min read

    • Article

      Mitford Revisited

      Oct 19, 2022

      Darling By India Knight Fig Tree £14.99 India Knight’s Darling is based on The Pursuit of Love (1945), Nancy Mitford’s most popular and cherished satirical novel about the aristocratic Radlett family during the interwar years. Knight’s updated versio

      3 min read

    • Article

      Yes, Queen

      Oct 6, 2019

      Yes, Queen
      3 min read

    • Article

      What Great Paintings Say

      Jan 19, 2023

      What Great Paintings Say
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Stag On The Rooftop

      Jan 9, 2020

      The Stag On The Rooftop
      3 min read

    • Article

      CATS In The MUSUEM

      Aug 31, 2023

      CATS In The MUSUEM
      1 min read

    • Article

      Where The Walls Have Ears

      May 22, 2020

      Where The Walls Have Ears
      8 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Aug 11, 2021

      Great Read
      5 min read

    • Article

      HOPE Reigns Eternal

      May 11, 2021

      HOPE Reigns Eternal
      2 min read

    • Article

      By The Lake

      Feb 21, 2023

      By The Lake
      2 min read

    • Article

      Alberto Arbasino Neverending Stories Angkor Vat, YMCA Dormitories Swallowing Proust

      Apr 21, 2020

      Alberto Arbasino was not friendly. We would cross paths at Dino Franzin’s house in Corso Matteotti in Milan, a meeting place for the cultural elite as every slow set was (and should be). He had a sharp face, even as it got heavier with age, with narr

      4 min read

    • Article

      'Murder, Magic, and What We Wore' Is the Diet Sprite of Regency Romps

      Nov 3, 2017

      The young adult novel is full of fits and starts, but charming in a way that feels as sweetly ingenuous as its heroine

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Marble Faun

      Nov 4, 2021

      The Marble Faun
      3 min read

    • Article

      Studio

      Apr 1, 2022

      Studio
      3 min read

    • Article

      History In The Making

      Apr 5, 2019

      History In The Making
      3 min read

    • Article

      Stella Tennant

      Mar 8, 2021

      Stella Tennant
      5 min read

    • Article

      Magnifico Alexander Chancellor

      Feb 9, 2022

      Forty-eight years ago, I was a long-haired student living in the kind of chaotic shared house that might, some years later, have inspired the TV series The Young Ones. In spring 1974, taking time off from listening to Bob Dylan’s new Planet Waves alb

      2 min read

    Reviews for Leonardo's Swans

    3.5/5

    141 ratings7 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Reading this recent historical fiction novel was a very strange experience – it's based on the same historical facts as another book, ‘Duchess of Milan' by Michael Ennis – which I love. So reading this book was almost like re-reading ‘Duchess'... but feeling that everything, has, somehow, changed... Although, I believe, factually accurate, Essex's book is much less flattering to her characters, I believe. Both focus on the two sisters, Beatrice and Isabella d'Este, who were prominent players in the Renaissance courts of Italy's late 15th century (and were patrons to Leonardo Da Vinci and many other artists of the day.) But while Ennis portrays these women as the well-educated, powerful, and savvy politicians that they likely were (without sacrificing a strong element of personal drama), Essex has the women be much more motivated by personal jealousy and vanity – their connivings are shown as more petty games than far-sighted political moves. They are constantly worrying about who is more beautiful than whom, who their husbands are sleeping with, and even Isabella's main goal of being painted by Da Vinci is equal parts vanity and desire to ‘get one over' on her sister. Isabella came across as shallow and irritating – which, I'm fairly sure, historically, she was not.
      The other annoying thing about this book is that Essex obviously did some of the research for this book by looking at existing portraits and carvings of her characters, an she spends a great deal of time in the book describing in great detail her personal interpretations of these artworks. OK, so she got me to do a Google image search for some of the works she described, so I guess she succeeded in getting me to want to look at them. But it got to the point where at times I felt like I was reading a museum didactic, not a novel.
      Overall, this wasn't bad – but I would definitely recommend ‘Duchess of Milan' over this book any day!
    • 3/5
      I read this book a few years ago, and liked it a lot more then. I don't know why I didn't notice the things that I disliked so much this time before, but they seemed glaringly evident during this read. Don't get me wrong, historically and setting wise, this book was wonderful, and in my opinion, the male character were done fairly well. The female characters who lead the story however, were not so. I felt as though their relationships and feelings towards one another were too quickly changing and though I know that relationships between siblings can be tumultuous, this seemed forced somehow. In any case, it wasn't an entirely bad story, just had some parts that I disliked, and for a story focusing on two women, I thought it could have been done better. It's still a decent book in the historical fiction genera.
    • 2/5
      I felt like I was reading Danielle Steele with a dash of history/art history thrown in. It made for a good discussion of daVinci and Renaissance art at my book group meeting, but the writing was lacking. I think I adore half of the picks from my book groups, and I really don't enjoy the other half.
    • 3/5
      My favorite thing about this book is that it exposed me to some very interesting people who lived in 15th century Italy. Without it I may have never heard about the incredible Isabella d'Este, may have never looked up the paintings mentioned in this book, may have never thought about Leonardo da Vinci as a man outside of his work. Ms. Essex did a great job of getting into the women's heads and showing us what they thought and felt at the most important times of their lives. I preferred Isabella not because her character was easier to relate to but because her sections were deeper, more intimate. She was a woman of great intellect, an art connoisseur, a formidable opponent for any man in the political arena as well as a woman of great beauty, grace and charm. It was fascinating to learn about her and I intend to read more about her in the future. Leonardo da Vinci is a prominent character in this book but we never get to hear about the events from him. He is always talked about by either Esabella or Beatrice and while their descriptions paint an interesting portrait (no pun intended) it would've been very interesting to get his take on the events of the time and the people with whom he was in such close contact. Throughout the book there are excerpts from Leonardo's notes that are both his reflections about the subjects of his studies and to-do lists that give us a glimpse into the mundane part of his life. These excerpts are not invention of the author, they are actually taken from da Vinci's notebooks and effectively bring the reader closer to the time and the characters of the book. As impressed as I was by the characters this book fell a bit flat for me because of the writing. The narrative went from lively scenes that were very engaging to sections that read more like a chronicle and back. Because of this the novel didn't hold my interest as much as it could have and I had no trouble setting it down and sometimes even found myself zoning out during the accounts of who invaded whom and who was suspected of whose death. The fact that the narrative often changed between past and present tense from one paragraph to the next didn't help eather and even though eventually I managed to ignore the back and forth between the "is" and the "was" the challenge of having to do it detracted from the enjoyment of the book. I would recommend this novel to those readers who are interested in learning about Italy at that tumultuous time in history, enjoy fascinating characters and feel they'll be able to ignore the inconsistencies in tense and less than stellar bridges between the scenes that actually had some life to them.
    • 4/5
      This really is a fabulous read. The interweavings of the Este sisters lives and that of Leonardo da Vinci is quite brilliant. You not only get a sense of the life style of those times, but a deeper look at the intricacies of that time. THe two sisters are wonderfully portrayed and their distinct and different personalites shiine through. Fans of this historical period should most definately read this one.
    • 3/5
      I picked this up in the hopes of reading a fictional story about Leonardo da Vinci and people that surrounded him. While it is true that he plays a role in this novel, he takes a back seat to the d'Este sisters. The story surrounding the sisters was interesting and intriguing, enough to make me finish the book, however I was unsatisfied overall. When I started to read this, I was hoping for a book similar to Sarah Dunant's The Birth of Venus or Susan Vreeland's The Passion of Artemisia, something that expounded on the life of the artist. This is worth a read if you have never heard of these people (excluding Leonardo, as you won't get much information here other than a brief overview of his personality) and are interested in the time period, including the natural intrigue that comes along with a royal-like court.
    • 3/5
      Thought I was going to hate it but ended up loving it. A story of two sisters. A story of Leonardo da Vinci. Check it out.Synopsis:The story revolves around two sisters, Isabella and Beatrice d'Este. Isabella is the typical blond gorgeous beauty. And Beatrice is the younger, more wild and less traditionally beautiful sister. At first Isabella is ecstatic that she is engaged to handsome young Marquess of Mantua. And they are actually in love with each other. And poor Beatrice. She is engaged to the OLD Duke of Milan, Ludovico "Il Moro" Sforza,. I mean, hey, he's a Duke, but he's so old! The Duke is known for being wealthy, having mistresses, and being a patron to Leonardo da Vinci. He's also known for having Leonardo paint portraits of his mistresses. A famous example is the portrait of his favorite mistress, Cecilia Gallerani entitled "Lady with an Ermine."But against all odds, when Beatrice marries The Duke, this wild, dark-haired, lover of horses gets her husband to fall in love with her. And she become a great Duchess.And Isabella is at odds. Now she is slightly jealous. She's not a Duchess and she's never going to be immortalized by Leonardo da Vinci...like Beatrice will be. Not that Beatrice cares.So I thought I wasn't going to like this book because I thought Isabella was going to be a scheming evil sister and poor Beatrice was going to get trampled over by The Duke. But that's not what happened.Even though the sisters are separated, through their letters and life circumstances, they actually become fairly close and bond. I loved watching that unfold.And Beatrice became my favorite. She became such a strong capable Duchess able to woo and win her husband while becoming a fairly apt ruler herself.While this would have been an interesting story on it's own, folded in is the story of Leonardo's time under the patronage of The Duke. So we get to see tidbits of his life and art during this period and how and why he made them.