Historical novels of the Renaissance

[John Bentley]

Can anyone recommend a good historical novel set in the European Renaissance (around 15th and 16th centuries)? Here is my criterion for "good":

1. Historically accurate - uses historical events and people as a backdrop for the plot. Does not idealize the period, but gives every effort to impart what day to day life was like back then. I'm interested enough in the period to know that cities were small and extremely dirty, as were most of the people, so I don't want novels like Alexandre Dumas wrote (although I enjoyed both "The Three Musketeers", and "The Count of Monte Cristo", don't get me wrong).

2. Definitely NOT a romance novel.

3. The author doesn't get so caught up in describing the period that the plot gets bogged down in minutiae.

4. I prefer more action/adventure/intrigue type novels with strong, mostly believable central characters (think "Bourne Identity" type).

That period was filled with intrigue, brawling, duels, street fighting, filthy peasants, corrupt popes, villainous aristocracy, etc. Surely someone has written something along those lines. Anyone have a novel to recommend?

 

[hgc]

If I can recommend without having read it yet, let me recommend Mirror Mirror, by Gregory Maguire. I've read his other 3 books, and they're great. This one is set in Tuscany in the time of the Borgias. I'm about to pick it up and read it myself next week.

Of course a masterpiece of pre-renaissance (14th century) fiction is Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose. It was a fair movie, but can't come near to the scope of the book. It's also a murder mystery.

 

[John Bentley]

Thanks HGC,

Let me know how you like it. The editor's note on the book makes it appear a bit dull, (all about how a woman deals with the plots of Lucreszia Borgia, who is staying at her manse at the time) but I could be wrong.

 

[demon]

I`d also recommend "The name of the Rose".

I`d also recommend "The Agony and the Ecstacy" by Irving Stone.

Dorothy Dunnett ( a fine portrait painter as well ), is also good and has a series of novels set in the Quattrocento. I`d recommend "Niccolo Rising" and especially "To Lie with Lions".

 

[Giz]

This suggestion may sound a bit Oriental as opposed to strictly "European" but given it's set in 1600. It's full of Jesuits, Spanish/Dutch emnity, the inquisition, and the eploration/exploitation of new lands: SHOGUN by James Clavell has to be recommended.

 

[John Bentley]

I`d also recommend "The name of the Rose".

I`d also recommend "The Agony and the Ecstacy" by Irving Stone.

Dorothy Dunnett ( a fine portrait painter as well ), is also good and has a series of novels set in the Quattrocento. I`d recommend "Niccolo Rising" and especially "To Lie with Lions".

I've read the name of the Rose, and The Agony and the Ecstasy. I looked up Dorothy Dunnett's novels on Barnes and Noble. The Niccolo series seems just what I was looking for. Thanks.