Beatrice's Spell

Oct 5, 2024 6:23 AM

Author:Belinda Jack

Beatrice's Spell

Beatrice Cenci was executed in Rome in September 1599: she was said to be sixteen, and was hauntingly beautiful. Her crime was the murder of her father, a member of one of the greatest Roman families, but his cruel treatment of her, including incestuous rape, moved the people of the city to take her side.

Weeping crowds lined the streets, and a special mass is still said in Rome on the anniversary of her death. She was at once innocent and guilty, the victim and the perpetrator of appalling crimes. From that time since, the ambivalent image of Beatrice has attracted writers and artists, and often their obsession with her fed their own self-destruction. In this compelling study, Belinda Jack takes on the dangerous challenge of bringing Beatrice to life, and of tracing her power over those who tried to resurrect her, from the tragedy of Shelley to the novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville, from the sculpture of Harriet Hosmer and the photographs of Julia Margaret Cameron to the desperate drama of Antonin Artaud.

As we follow the stories of their lives and ambitions, we see how they suffered critical condemnation for their works about Beatrice, and were sometimes pushed to the brink of insanity. Her story, which is one of lust, passion and violence, contains a powerful sense of the forbidden, the taboo that drives people over the edge. Beatrice's Spell is at once scholarly and utterly engrossing, carrying the power of her story through time.

Reviews

A remarkable achievement ... a huge, crowded and kaleidoscopic canvas, which the author handles with remarkable authority ... It is also enormous fun to read

—— Daily Telegraph

A fine, lucid book ... vividly drawn with novel-like touches

—— Hanif Kureshi

Beautifully written

—— Sunday Times

French is a natural storyteller ... a delightful tale of intrigue, ham-handedness and just plain blundering

—— India Today

This book leaves us in no doubt that arriving at the truth is a vital matter - at times a matter of life and death

—— John Lloyd , Financial Times

Intelligent and hugely enjoyable... It is a serious inquiry into why conspiracy theories appeal, and aaronovitch's theories are consistently reasonable, persuasive and humane

—— Sunday Times

Terrifying, hilarious, irreverent and addictively compelling... An instant classic

—— Simon Sebag-Montefiore

Brilliant, sparkling and witty

—— Ian Kershaw

A rich and fascinating account.... His unravelling of the theories is a model of common sense and responsible reasoning

—— AC Grayling , The Times

Anyone who has toyed with suspicion over the accidental nature of Princess Diana's death, or the self-inflicted nature of David Kelly's, will have that flirtation brutally curtailed by Aaronovitch's caustic rationality

—— Observer

A useful book about an important subject

—— Giles Foden , Guardian

With dark wit and extraordinary patience he lays bare the psychology of conspiracism

—— Nick Cohen

Voodoo Histories is as concerned with understanding conspiracies as it is with rebutting them, and Aaronovitch's tone throughout is that of the sage psychologist, his method that of the forensic historian

—— New Statesman

Fascinating

—— Lesley McDowell , Independent on Sunday

Admirably diligent

—— Rafael Behr , Observer

He is articulate, well-versed and a good writer; it's worth reading this whether you agree with him or not.

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

Fascinating account of the major conspiracy theories of the past 100 years

—— Lesley McDowell , Independent on Sunday

Aaronovitch aims to do more than expose popular nonsense

—— Rafael Behr , Observer

Forensically intelligent and hugely enjoyable study of modern conspiracy theories...consistently reasonable, persuasive and humane

—— Christopher Hart , Sunday Times

Solid, well-researched and unexpectedly gripping

—— Christopher Hirst , Independent

[Aaronovitch] is, broadly speaking, an enemy of conspiracy theories. He is also articulate, well versed in the facts and a good writer

—— William Leith , Scotsman

Aaronovitch painstakingly dissects these and some of the other great conspiracy theories of the age and demonstrates with merciless clarity what utter tripe they are.

—— Mail on Sunday

A serious, entertaining and shocking investigation into the stuff that conspiracy theories are made of. Aaronovitch guides us through the half-truths and speculation and examines the distrust of officialdom which fuels conspiracists' imagination.

—— Independent on Sunday

In its many-layered discoveries, the book is truly magnetic

—— Jane Knight , The Times

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