The Contessa

“To succeed in seducing both the Emperor of the French and the King of Italy, while carrying on secret diplomatic negotiations between the two of them, was only one of the Contessa di Castiglione’s spectacular accomplishments. Hailed as the most beautiful woman of her time, she mixed sex and politics in a heady brew. And managed her image for posterity through remarkable photographs of her costumed self. Benedetta Craveri’s biography offers the broadest account so far of a life that was pure theater.” —Peter Brooks

“This book not only allows us to understand Donna Virginia’s vitality, but also helps us understand the political stage set of Europe as a whole between the 1850s and 1880s, centered on Napoleon III’s imperial France. There is no shortage of unexpected revelations, shedding new light on a delicate historical transition and on the role of Castiglione as a ‘Nicchia,’ a professional serial seduction artist, in contemporary society in various countries.” —Cesare Cunaccia, Lampoon Magazine

“Craveri follows Virginia’s fortunes amid political upheaval, revolution, war, and intrigue. With a large network of lovers, friends, and acquaintances, and with a talent for manipulation, she proved to be valuable in procuring and transmitting information. Craveri candidly portrays her hedonism, coldness, and arrogance … A richly detailed portrait of a scandalous woman.“—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“Craveri… is a master at engaging with history and tracing the threads of individual stories that inform its major episodes and events. Thus, the thousand lives of the Countess of Castiglione seem to take shape and color under the infrared light of the darkroom where they incubated for over a century, and Benedetta Craveri develops the themes and lines of an irreducibly modern figure with rigor and passion.” —Maremosso

“The discovery of new, reliable sources allowed Craveri to reconstruct a truthful, scathing… portrait of [Virginia Verasis di Castiglione], giving life to a book that is indeed a biography, but so rich in plot twists, narrative skill, and extraordinary adventures that it almost approaches a fantasy novel.” —Chiara Giacobelli, Affaritaliani

Benedetta Craveri is a Professor of French literature. She taught for many years at the University Suor Orsola Benincasa in Naples. She is a member of the Accademia dei Lincei and contributes to The New York Review of Books and to the cultural pages of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. Her books include Madame du Deffand and Her World, Mistresses and Queens, and The Age of Conversation. She is married to a French diplomat and in 2017 was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca by l’Institut de France.

Alex Andriesse’s essays and poems have appeared in Granta, Review of Contemporary Fiction, and Literary Imagination. His translations include Roberto Bazlen’s Notes Without a Text and Other Writings and François-René de Chateaubriand’s Memoirs from Beyond the Grave: 1768–1800 and 1800–15. He lives in the Netherlands.

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