Odo Valsecca, a poor relation raised on a lonely farm, finds himself heir to the small north Italian duchy of Pianura in the late eighteenth century. Drawn to the Enlightenment ideas of reformers and to the brave Fulvia Vivaldi, he must decide what kind of ruler to be as the old order of church and court begins to crack.
Wharton’s first novel, a richly researched panorama of Italy on the eve of the French Revolution. Download the free EPUB.