Romola
by George Eliot
Set in Italy in the late fifteenth century, during the Renaissance of Florence Machiavelli and the Medici, Romola is the most exotic and adventurous of George Eliot's novels. It tells the story of the career and martyrdom of Savonarola, the charismatic religious leader who rebelled against the humanities of the period and burned books in a "stake of arrogance". With this story, Eliot brilliantly reconstructs a turning point in Europe's intellectual history in vivid detail.
