Vivaldi's Virgins
by Barbara
Quick
The coming of
age of Vivaldi's violinist
Publisher:
HarperCollins (July 2007)
Vivaldi's Virgins
is a coming of age story set in 18th century Venice utilizing and
transforming a literary form popular during that era. As a violinist,
the narrator allows the reader to experience the richness of Vivaldi's
music from a perspective unavailable today to modern listeners. Barbara
Quick presents a vivid image of 18th century Venice and Vivaldi through
the eyes and life of the narrator Anna Maria. An orphan in the
cloistered halls of the Ospedale della Pieta, Anna Maria dal Violin has
been handpicked at an early age to join the elite musical group within
the foundling home and be taught by the maestro Vivaldi. Although
cloistered within the Pieta, the reader learns of Venice through those
who come to visit the Pieta and through the tours and secret escapes of
the curious girls.
Barbara Quick's novel removes the masks so carefully worn by the upper
strata of Venice society. Vivaldi is seen through the eyes of his
students and musicians. Vivaldi's
Virgins is a combination of first person narrative in which Anna
Maria tells her life story and an epistolary novel 'a novel told
through letters', a genre emerging in popularity during the 18th
century. As a disciplinary measure, Sister Laura instructs Anna Maria
to write to calm Anna Maria's growing passion. She writes letters to
her unknown mother never knowing whether they will be read nor by whom.
Anna Maria lies hidden and almost invisible, living behind a grille
from the public. Barbara Quick's novel removes the grille and allows
the reader to peer inside the life of this 18th century woman who cries
out for her mother and makes Vivaldi's genius heard by his public. Anna
Maria dal Violin is the body and the violin through which Vivaldi's
music is heard. Images of the voice of the violin and the voice of a
child's body maturing merge with the search for her mother and her
prayers to the Virgin Mother. A special plot twist at the end will
delight all readers. This novel will appeal to a wide range of readers:
those craving something of literary beauty, Vivaldi and classical music
lovers, women wanting to experience history through the eyes of the
women who lived it but for whom history rarely relates their story, and
anyone wanting to peek into the lesser known history of Venice or music.
To my personal delight as a medieval literature enthusiast, Quick's
novel contains one wonderful reference to Dante Alighieri and his
letters to Beatrice also written without certainty that they would ever
be read by the intended reader. Barbara Quick cites this medieval
reference, combining it with the 18th century epistolary novel and
modernizes both. Although a reader need no knowledge of these literary
traditions to enjoy this novel, the thoroughness of the author's
research heightens the reading pleasure.
Vivaldi's Virgins
is a five star read, especially for readers looking for a novel more
satisfying and memorable than a light read. The historical detail is
well researched and the fictional imagination is breathtaking. The
poetic language of each sentence is exquisite. Although I am a fast
reader, I found myself reading slowly, creeping actually, but pausing
on each page to savor its beauty and poetic prose. It has been 17 years
since my graduate studies in literature and I thought I had finally
conquered my terrible habit of writing in my books. After reading ten
pages of Barbara Quick's Vivaldi's
Virgins, I broke down and wrote in the book and continued to the
end, rereading each line as I underlined. There are a multitude of
passages so beautiful that I want to reread them several times.
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