Saturday, October 07, 2006
The Second Mrs. Giaconda
by E. L. Konigsburg
This is another fictional tale about the lives of historical people--in this case Leonardo da Vinci and his servant, Salai. Salai is only known through a few references in Leonardo's papers. The earlier ones refer to him as a thief and general scoundrel, the later ones have Leonardo giving him money and remembering him in his will. Ms. Konigsburg weaves a tale in an effort to connect the two faces of Salai and, more importantly, to try gain some insight on what the mind of one of the greatest geniuses of history was like. It's a nice book, but in the end I fell like rating it as waiting room material. I don't know if it's just because today's a rainy day and I'm feeling somber, or if maybe I've just been reading too much historical fiction.
LibraryThing link
This is another fictional tale about the lives of historical people--in this case Leonardo da Vinci and his servant, Salai. Salai is only known through a few references in Leonardo's papers. The earlier ones refer to him as a thief and general scoundrel, the later ones have Leonardo giving him money and remembering him in his will. Ms. Konigsburg weaves a tale in an effort to connect the two faces of Salai and, more importantly, to try gain some insight on what the mind of one of the greatest geniuses of history was like. It's a nice book, but in the end I fell like rating it as waiting room material. I don't know if it's just because today's a rainy day and I'm feeling somber, or if maybe I've just been reading too much historical fiction.
LibraryThing link
Labels: WaitingRoomMaterial
// posted by John @ 5:08 AM 
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