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Synopsis
Ornatrix
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About the Author
Kate Howard received her PhD in English Literature from the University of Kent. Her extensive travels throughout Italy, especially the Umbria region, inspired her fiction. The Ornatrix is her debut novel.
Review
“The meticulous research and rich world-building place Howard alongside masters of the genre like Sarah Dunant and Tracy Chevalier (though Howard isn’t afraid to take readers down more ominous paths). If the idea of The Picture of Dorian Gray with feminist leanings gives you a thrill, then The Ornatrix is for you. ”
- BookPage
“Kate Howard’s The Ornatrix is a dazzling exploration of the meaning and conveyance of feminine beauty . . . At times morbidly engrossing, The Ornatrix is a powerful testament to both the wonders and pitfalls of feminine identity when entwined with ever-shifting perceptions of beauty.”
- Foreword (picked as a Foreword Reviews Best New Release)
“Kate Howard’s exceptional debut novel should be enjoyed in sips like fine wine, to better savor the lush, evocative prose all the way to the satisfying finish. It sent me immediately to my cosmetic shelf to decipher the real ingredients of all those miracle creams for which I have paid so dearly, even as I remembered that the more things change, the more they stay the same―especially human nature.”
- Brenda Rickman Vantrease, bestselling author of The Illuminator
“In The Ornatrix, author Kate Howard strips away the gilded facades of Renaissance Italy to reveal the sordid underside of the quest for physical beauty. Brave and brilliant, this is a novel that is as darkly compelling as a rare black pearl.”
- Patricia Bracewell, author of the Emma of Normandy trilogy
“This is a moving, sometimes frightening, and always surprising story. Utilizing strong historical settings and enchanting language, the light and dark pigments coalesce into a story beautiful on multiple levels.”
- Historical Novels Society
“An intricate and authentic portrait of Renaissance Italy, especially of its feminine psychology.”
- Literary Hub
“Kate Howard’s marvelous debut novel creates a seething, sensual idiom entirely its own. Exquisite, earthy, witty – this is a book of rare beauty, about beauty. In this intensely-imagined, elegant and erudite novel, the story of a 16th century Italian woman’s quest for beauty springs vividly to life.”
- Wendy Wallace, author of The Painted Bridge
“A historical novel in the old-fashioned style...deliciously complex and intelligent.”
- Essie Fox, author of The Goddess and the Thief
“Life in Renaissance Italy is replicated with a multitude of details that make for absolutely fascinating reading in The Ornatrix. Howard is to be commended for not only doing the research, but for rendering it so well that visualizing the characters and their lives is easy.”
- The Gilmore Guide to Books
“A richly drawn cast of twisted characters...lyrical...beguiling.”
- Vogue UK
“The antique recipes for beauty treatments slipped between the chapters of The Ornatrix are a testament to Kate Howard's skill in drawing on the truths of history to reflect on beauty and womanhood (and where the two intersect) in 16th-century Umbria and up through today. Howard's language is as layered as the paints Ghostanza spreads across her face each day...Especially as it slinks forward to a surprising conclusion, Howard's debut proves to be a complicated, intricate story of beauty, obsession, revenge and what it means to be seen--and therefore to be known.”
- Shelf Awareness
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- PublisherDuckworth
- Publication date2016
- ISBN 10 0715650971
- ISBN 13 9780715650974
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages272
- Rating
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ISBN 10: 0715650971
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Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. Flavia was born with a birthmark covering her face, in the shape of a bird in flight. A dyer's daughter, she grows up in a little house in the woods, far away from prying eyes. Ashamed of her mark, her mother makes Flavia hide her face behind a veil on the rare occasions she is allowed to be seen in public. But on the night before her younger sister's wedding, Flavia does something drastic, something that will draw her into a much wider and stranger world than she could have imagined: the convent of Santa Giuliana, just outside the city walls of Perugia.There she meets Ghostanza, a courtesan turned widow, whose white-lead painted face entrances Flavia, and whose beauty and cruelty are unmatched. Flavia becomes her ornatrix: her hairdresser and personal maid. But as white-lead paint rots the flesh below it, the bustling city, and Santa Giuliana, is rotting below the shimmer of wealth and privilege. And Flavia is drawn into a world of desire and jealousy that has devastating consequences.Set in sixteenth century Italy and rich in description and character, Kate Howard's stunning debut novel is perfect for fans of Patrick Suskind's Perfume, Kate Mosse's The Taxidermist's Daughter and Jessie Burton's The Miniaturist. Painted against a vivid historical landscape with themes and characters relevant today, it tackles issues of belonging, female identity and the perception of beauty and cannot fail to move. The passionate and elegantly dark tale of desire, obsession and deceit by a talented new author Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780715650974
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