Love and politics in the twilight of the Venetian Republic
Review of A Venetian Affair: A True Story of Impossible Love in the Eighteenth Century by Andrea di Robilant
This is a book about a great passion between a young patrician and a woman from a “questionable” past. The author's approach – it was really a family enterprise based on the 250-year old letters his father found from a direct ancestor – is to paint a wide tableau of the era from the point of view of two young and doomed lovers. Though this may sound melodramatic, it is the perfect vehicle for a historic narrative.
Andrea Memmo was the scion of an ancient Venetian family, destined by blood, effort, and talent to become one of the most powerful politican-functionaries of the dying Republic. Memmo was steeped in the ideas that were "in the air" of the Enlightenment and reform, mentored by some of the most brillant men of the era, and friends with such luminaries as Casanova and Denon, the later founder of the Louvre for Napoleon. Also witty and handsome, he seemed destined for greatness from the youngest age. Then he met Giustiniana Wynne, a quasi-aristocrat whose mother was Greek and whose father was of "solid stock" from Britain, and his life took an unexpected turn involving passion, secrecy, and impossible hopes; she was one of the great beauties in the British expatriate circles. However, by custom that extends to ancient Venetian tradition, Memmo was obligated to marry a "correctly" aristocratic woman by family arrangement.
The author does a brilliant job of placing the lovers in the context of the times. As the reader, you sympathize with the concerns of all the protagonists, from Memmo’s familial obligations to Giustiniana's difficult mother, who wanted to avoid unnecessary prying into her murky past. These are not two-dimensional characters, but full-bodied people trying desperately to control their destinies while falling prey to their weaknesses and vanities.
The vagaries of many intersecting careers of the protagonists and their friends are examined with perfect detail and brevity, an additional window into the life of the times and an exquisite treat. From Venice, the reader is taken on a tour of the major European powers of the time, following Giustiniana and her family as they try to make their way in the decaying world of the old regime and unable to find a suitable place for themselves with any permanence.
While Memmo more or less fulfills his destiny, it is Giustiniana who emerges as the most original person in the book. Her desires and career, from searching for a rich aristocrat for marriage (she eventually married the Ambassador from Austria) to her later success as a pioneering writer, are as fascinating as they are reflections of what a troublesome person she must have been. She always seemed to step into a hornets' nest instead of operating within conventional expectations. Yet somehow she continually emerged as an admired and inspiring hostess of a salon that she built through friendship and talent.
There is not a single boring page in this book, and it is written with a subtle elegance that covers what was happening in the 7-years' war to the rumblings of the French Revolution and the demise of the Venetian Republic, of which Memmo could have become the last Doge if circumstances had been different. It all adds up to a masterpiece and is based on the personal correspondence of the lovers that were assembled from many different sources.
This is one of the few books I read in Italian, which I was studying at the time. The languade was very difficult as there are long sections from the letters in the Venetian patois of the time. But the clarity of the writing is truly luminous. I only hope that the writer will produce more.