Stone Virgin - Softcover

Unsworth, Barry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393313093 ISBN 13: 9780393313093

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1995

Synopsis

In its romantic and dangerous tour of history, Barry Unsworth's Stone Virgin rivals A. S. Byatt's Possession.

A mysterious sculpture of a beautiful and erotic Madonna holds the key to the Fornarini family's secrets. When Raikes, a conservation expert, tries to restore her, he is swept under the statue's spell and swept under the spell of the seductive Chiara Litsov, a member of the Fornarini family now married to a famous sculptor. Raikes finds himself losing all moral grounding as his love for statue and woman intertwine in lust and murder.

About this title

About the Author:

Barry Unsworth (1930-2012), who won the Booker Prize for Sacred Hunger, was a Booker Prize finalist for Morality Play and was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize for The Ruby in Her Navel.

From Library Journal:

Simon Raikes is given the task of restor ing a 15th-century sculpture of the Ma donna on a church in Venice. A frustrat ed artist himself, Simon is compelled to solve certain mysteries: Who was the sculptor? Why was the work sup pressed for two centuries? How did it earn consecration? As he begins to painstakingly shear away corrosion, the statue apparently confronts him with vi sions and stirs his passions. His search for answers leads to a local sculptor's wife, with whom Simon falls in love, and eventually to a new mystery. The author handles a variety of narrative voices and the aura of suspense well. By disclosing the lives of those involved with this Madonna at three significant historical times, Unsworth allows sub tle examination into the underlying theme, the attitudes men have toward women. Andrew Peters, Pioneer Multi-Cty. Lib., Norman, Okla.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0393313093
• ISBN 13: 9780393313093
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 318