The Secret of the Glass Book

Donna Russo Morin tackles seventeenth century Venice in her newest novel, The Secret of the Glass. She writes of many underlying themes while she tells the story of Sophia, a girl who is doomed to marry a nobleman against her wishes. She is the eldest child of a glassmaking family, and as such, she is the only daughter that is allowed to marry, bringing with her the inheritance of the lucrative glass factory that has been in heritage for years. The remaining daughters will be forced to enter a convent once Sophia's sickly father dies. The story centers around this possibility, and the fact that Sophia wants nothing to do with her betrothed, Pasquale. Worse yet, her father who suffers from dementia has alluded to the fact that Pasquale's family has something damning to hide, but Sophia cannot approach her father with further questions. She instead decides to follow her betrothed to see if she can find out something about him, as he is not very talkative when they are together.

The Secret of The Glass carries with it the intrigue of the glassmaking process, and gives details about it as Sophia herself creates the pieces. That is a subject that would be damaging to the family if anyone found out the fact that it has been Sophia making the glass for so long, since it is against the law for women to do so. When Sophia is presented with the possibility of losing the ability to make the glass due to her betrothal, she decides to try and devise a way out. Along the way, she meets the dashing fellow, Teodoro, someone who is not allowed to marry, and they are instantly attracted to each other.

Beginning with the tradition of carnival time, the author slowly meanders her way through this story, presenting details of Venice that are intended to bring Venice to life. Although I am normally very appreciative of historical detail, I was turned off by the many Italian words that were inserted. I had no inkling of what many of these words meant, and that really distracted my attention span, which in turn failed to pull me into the story. I would assume that those readers who love Venice and its allure may truly be entertained by the endless snippets of detail that the novel imparts. For this reader though, I felt the reading was sluggish for me, and that it was hard to become emotionally attached to Sophia or any of her supporting characters. Her characters were interesting enough, and I was surprised by one character's actions at the end of the novel, so much so that it was too out of character. With a story that focused mainly on the political atmosphere at the time, which was the most intriguing, it seemed that more things were happening around Sophia but not directly to her, which makes the events and plot seem a bit more simple while describing the book. I am particularly interested to see how others will review this book, especially by those who really adore Italy. Perhaps this one was too far out of my comfort zone of England-related reads for me to appreciate at this time.

That being said, I was particulary intrigued by the scenes that included Galileo, as it is told in the novel Sophia made the lenses for his first telescope, which was the central instrument for the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. This in turn affected the political, social and religious controversy of the times, which was one of the themes incorporated into this novel. Those who believed in theories of the astronomer Copernicus were branded as heretics, and those who supported Galileo were therefore tottering on that same edge of heresy. Another interesting theme was the Pope versus the doge, with an important case of clerics which occurred in 1605 and who should have the authority to govern disputes. I was also touched by one theme of the high dowry and forced marriage situations at that time.