Review

The Princess of Mantua

By Marie Ferranti

Published by Hesperus Press

It is 1433, and the ten year-old Barbara von Brandenburg leaves her native Germany to marry the Prince of Mantua, Ludovico Gonzaga.

When her husband leaves for war immediately after, she finds herself at the centre of one of the most refined courts in Europe and when, seven years later, Ludovico returns victorious from his campaigns, she has to live with him through the most difficult trials - illnesses, mourning and the curse of his heredity: all Gonzaga women are born hunchbacked.

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Translator: Andrew Brown