Lucrezia Borgia

The poisoner of legend, and, at the last, a mother.

Not yet released. This edition is finished and in production. Write to the press and we will let you know the day it goes on sale.

About this edition

Venice and Ferrara, in the age of the Borgias. A young soldier named Gennaro loathes above all names the name of Lucrezia Borgia, that byword for poison and the dagger, never dreaming what she is to him. And Lucrezia, who has done every wickedness the world lays at her door, guards one secret tenderness that will undo them both.

First played in Paris in 1833, Lucrèce Borgia was among the great successes of Victor Hugo’s Romantic theatre, and soon gave Donizetti his opera. In his preface Hugo set himself a task: to take moral deformity at its most complete, the poisoner queen of legend, and place within it the one feeling that might still redeem it, the love of a mother.

This edition sets the complete play in George Burnham Ives’s faithful English translation, Hugo’s own preface, the Dramatis Personæ, and all three acts, bound behind an original painting.

Details

• Victor Hugo (1802–1885), translated by George Burnham Ives
• The complete 1833 drama in three acts, with Hugo’s preface
• Solocosmo Press
• The Lightbound Library
• Paperback and hardcover, 6 × 9, 104 pages