Stradella

Set in seventeenth-century Italy, this historical romance grows out of the real life of the composer and singer Alessandro Stradella. A vain Venetian senator, Pignaver, plans to marry his own young niece and ward, Ortensia, and hires Stradella to polish her musical education before the wedding. Teacher and pupil fall in love across the neck of a lute, then elope toward Ferrara with their servants, the hunchbacked Cucurullo and the shrewd nurse Pina, while the humiliated senator sends two hired bravi, Trombin and Gambardella, riding after them. The chase carries the lovers on toward Rome. The book appeared in 1909, the year of Crawford’s death, and it holds the unhurried Italian color he had spent decades perfecting. Readers who enjoy period intrigue, music, and love pursued at sword point will settle in happily.