Lucretia Borgia
Life, Love, and Death in Renaissance Italy

I could not disagree more with the reviewers who are lambasting this book for its lack of purple prose and for not having the Antonia Frasier approach of “just make stuff up”. Meticulously referenced and using vast amounts of primary sources, as well as looking in a measured way at historical debate......more

I don't read many biographies. It's all the guesswork involved that puts me off. A novelist knows her characters heart and soul; a biographer doesn't. This is a very well written book. Lucrezia Borgia was clearly a fascinating woman. More autonomous, less scandalous than I had thought. I enjoyed lea......more

Very useful and helped me sort out the timeline of events in Ferrara during a crucial period of the Italian Wars.......more

A pretty fun read on a controversial historical figure. The prose could get a bit speculative/purpley at times, but overall I felt it was decently balanced, and like any well-written biography, it contains some pretty cool trivia about life and politics in Lucrezia's time so you get a better idea of......more

Unfortunately, Lucrezia Borgia promises a lot it doesn't deliver on. The book is only half about Lucrezia. Bradford branches out to tell the stories of not only those close to her, but those who had barely anything to do with her. This could be excused as a way of teaching readers about Lucrezia's Ita......more