THE CONTESSA

An Italian aristocrat’s tumultuous life and times.

Italian literary scholar Craveri draws on fresh archival sources to create a perceptive biography, translated by Andriesse, of Virginia Verasis di Castiglione (1837-1899), a woman of astounding beauty and unfettered ambition. The rebellious, spoiled daughter of Italian aristocrats, by the time she was a teenager, she became increasingly aware of how her beauty could serve her. At 16, hoping to gain independence, she married the Count of Castiglione, a widower who had fallen madly in love with her. The marriage was a disappointment for both: The count, Virginia complained, “had changed into a nagging pedagogue and treated her like a little girl,” while she, the count vented to her father, was volatile, willful, and uncontrollable. Soon pregnant, three months after her son was born, she took a lover, embarking on a flamboyant career as a “serial seductress.” Her conquests included Victor Emmanuel II, Napoleon III, wealthy diplomat Henri de La Tour d’Auvergne, and Prince Giuseppe Poniatowski, an old family friend and the confidant to whom she wrote thousands of letters. Like Virginia, Poniatowski was “individualistic, intolerant of rules, in love with success, power, and money.” 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: “If she commanded the stage with the lucidity of a professional actress,” the author writes, “narcissism is likely to have been of the essence.” Narcissism factored into her cruel treatment of her son as well: damning evidence of selfishness that seems pathological.

A richly detailed portrait of a scandalous woman.