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Romola

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Romola

By: George Eliot
Narrated by: Lucy Scott
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About this listen

Set in the turbulent years following the death of Lorenzo de' Medici, George Eliot's fourth novel, Romola, moves the stage from the English countryside of the 19th century to an Italy four centuries before her time. It tells the tale of a young Florentine woman, Romola de' Bardi, and her coming of age through her troubled marriage to the suave and self-absorbed Greek Tito. Slowly Tito's true character begins to unfurl, and his lies and treachery push Romola toward a more spiritual path, where she transcends into a majestic, Madonna-like role, while Tito descends further into corruption and villainy....

Impeccably researched, the novel features a cast of historical characters, including Girolamo Savonarola, Piero di Cosimo, and Niccolò Machiavelli, and draws parallels between the Republic of Rome of Eliot's day and the Republic of Florence ruled by Savonarola, most famous for its Bonfire of the Vanities, depicted here in vivid detail.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

Public Domain (P)2020 Naxos AudioBooks Historical Fiction Fiction Rome
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I can see why her fans found this hard to read. This novel is weighty but my goodness it is fabulously researched and brilliantly written. I rate Eliot’s ability to delve beneath the skin as greater than Tolstoy’s (and that is saying something as he is so skilled at understanding human foibles). Having listened to Anna Karenina - the influences of Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda are obvious.
This novel really works well on Audible. Listening to the very competent narrator, transported me to fifteenth century Florence. Eliot’s research is meticulous, I really felt I learned something about the politics of that period in Italy (which in turn helped me understand our Henry VIII relationship with Rome). But best of all was Eliot’s extraordinary understanding of human nature. Her ‘baddies’’s are never all bad and her ‘goodies’ are not saints. All her characters are nuanced and have depth. The plot is exciting and based on real events.
If George Eliot really had been a man, I’m sure we’d be celebrating her as much as Dickens!
I highly recommend listening to this novel (but don’t try to read it!)

Brilliant to listen to - hard to read!

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'Romola' is one of those huge Victorian novels that put some people off (personally I love them - if the book's good, then the longer the better!). George Eliot's recreation of 15th-century Florence is anazingly detailed. She brings in the extreme characters of the period, such as Savonarola and Macchiavelli, as well as Romola, her bright and noble-hearted (but naive) heroine, and Romola's charming, selfish husband. Like 'Middlemarch', this a story of an entire place, told through characters we care about.

A great novel, well read

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I couldn't stopped listening, so well written ,the knowledge of Florence and history so great
the narrator did beautiful job

the performance is one the best I ever had

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Took a long time to get going. However it is a great story set in interesting renaissance Florence with many famous historical characters of the times. Better on audible than reading in print form I would venture!

Many twists and turns in the story. Interesting complex characters of Romola and Tito, also Baldassari

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George Eliot’s fourth novel was her only historical novel and, to my mind, her least effective. The story takes second place to the telling of historical events in Florence in the last 10 years of the fifteenth century and is the weaker for it. The historical scene setting often swaps the story itself which, to be honest, isn’t particularly strong.

Tito, a young unknown man, arrives in Florence and his charm, learning and good looks soon win him influential friends. He rises in society, but he guards a secret and, as events develop, the protection of that secret degrades his character. Romola, our title character, is much influenced by Tito but, over time, begins to realise he is not all he seems.

The story is pleasant enough, and it’s well written, but it is also a long book, and the story develops very slowly. There is increasing drama in the second half of the novel and particularly towards the end but George Eliot is constantly trying to present the real events of the era with the result that our characters and their story play second fiddle to the presentation of historical facts.

Lucy Scott does a splendid job trying to bring the novel to life. I think, without her commitment and energy, it would be very turgid. Even in her able hands, however, the story cannot be anything but weak.

For historians of late fifteenth century Florence this is probably a useful resource. Otherwise, however, I can only really recommend it to George Eliot completists like me. As a novel there are many better.

The Politics of Fifteenth Century Florence

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