Book description
My lady, Fiammetta Bianchini, was plucking her eyebrows and biting color into her lips when the unthinkable happened and the Holy Roman Emperor’s army blew a hole in the wall of God’s eternal city, letting in a flood of half-starved, half-crazed troops bent on pillage and punishment.
Thus begins In…
Why read it?
3 authors picked In the Company of the Courtesan as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
In prose that is engrossing and rich in color, culture, and voice, Dunant’s historical fiction novel incorporates stories of two of the women that I included in my own book.
The courtesan Fiammetta, loosely based on the life of Veronica Franco, and her healer La Draga, inspired by Elena Crusichi, pulled me into eighteenth-century Venice and its opportunities and dangers for enterprising women. Paired with reading Franco’s actual poems and letters, edited and translated by Ann Rosalind Jones and Margaret F. Rosenthal, I developed a deep admiration and compassion for Franco and Crusichi during Venice’s heyday.
Dunant has again written…
From Kathleen's list on undaunted Italian women to inspire you.
Told from the point of view of a guard who happens to be a dwarf, this enjoyable, page-turning novel is about a courtesan who escapes the Sack of Rome in 1527 to ply her trade in Venice. As the dwarf and his mistress infiltrate their way into the highest ranks of Venetian society, they must contend with the mysteries and dangers found in every echelon of one of the Renaissance world’s greatest cities.
From Gina's list on women in Renaissance Venice.
Sixteenth-century Italy. A much-sought-after courtesan, Fiammetta Bianchini, and her confidante, foil, and pimp Bucino, a dwarf, resettle in Venice after the sack of Rome and establish her prowess in and amongst the glitterati of the time. Over time, the two outcasts grow apart. Their connection frays, almost to irreparable. Dunant’s research brings Venice’s glitz and its grunge alive. There are four others, not really in a series per se, but alike enough because they share the Renaissance that they group loosely together. A courtesan was one of the few women of the time who owned herself. For me, an absolute…
From Susan's list on subversive historical fiction.
If you love In the Company of the Courtesan...
December on 5C4
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
Want books like In the Company of the Courtesan?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 96 books like In the Company of the Courtesan.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,278
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like In the Company of the Courtesan, you might also like...
The Bridge
The Bridge provides a compassionate and well researched window into the worlds of linear and circular thinking. A core pattern to the inner workings of these two thinking styles is revealed, and most importantly, insight into how to cross the distance between them. Some fascinating features emerged such as, circular…
And Then They Were Gone
Of the 918 Americans who died in the shocking murder-suicides of November 18, 1978, in the tiny South American country of Guyana, a third were under eighteen. More than half were in their twenties or younger.
The authors taught in a small high school in San Francisco where Reverend Jim…
