12 h 39 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 12 h 39 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when a composer’s forbidden love brings the anger of a powerful Venetian down on him?
In F. Marion Crawford’s Stradella, music and danger share the stage in Baroque Italy. Alessandro Stradella is a composer and singer whose gifts please patrons and audiences. But his love life crosses a dangerous line, drawing him into a scandal over a woman under the protection of a powerful Venetian.
The offended man refuses to let the matter rest. Hired hands and powerful connections carry the threat across the Italian states, giving this short historical romance its pulse. Against a world of republics, duchies and papal lands, Crawford brings together forbidden love, admired music and a pursuit that leaves the lovers under threat.
What you’ll discover
- Music at the heart Meet a composer whose livelihood depends on the patrons and audiences his music pleases.
- Love under threat Follow a forbidden attachment that brings private feeling into conflict with a powerful man.
- A pursuit across Italy Feel the pressure as hired hands extend an offended Venetian’s reach across Italian states.
- The Baroque world Enter an Italy divided among proud states, each with its own rulers and customs.
- Romance with adventure Discover a short tale that joins the world of music to love and danger.
Who will love it
Readers who love swashbuckling adventure, Italian settings, and lovers who defy a powerful guardian will enjoy this book. So will music lovers and fans of a witty narrator.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A marriage plan invites another love
- Music gives love its first voice
- Pina turns resentment into an escape
- Two employers set conflicting deadly tasks
- False friends help the lovers onward
- Roman protection hides another trap
- The desire for admiration exposes weakness
- Rank does not guarantee true honor
- A love song becomes a chase
Who’s who
- OrtensiaA seventeen-year-old Venetian orphan raised in her uncle's palace, promised to him in marriage, who wants to choose her own love.
- Alessandro StradellaA gifted Neapolitan singer and composer who falls in love with his pupil and risks everything to carry her away.
- Senator Michele PignaverA wealthy, vain widower who writes mediocre songs, spends little, and wants Ortensia to sing them as his wife.
- PinaOrtensia's stern nurse, who hates the senator and helps the lovers escape, while fearing pain above all else.
- CucurulloStradella's devoted hunchbacked servant, pious and resourceful, who wants his master's soul and body kept safe.
- TrombinA round-faced, talkative Venetian swordsman for hire who loves feasts, fine speeches, and Ortensia herself.
- GambardellaTrombin's dark, sour partner in the swordsman's trade, a former noble with a painful past and a hooked nose.
- Don Alberto AltieriA charming nephew of the real ruler of Rome, who wants Ortensia and is used to getting what he wants.
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Stradella in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Stradella
by F. Marion Crawford · 1909
In Venice, a senator's niece opens her window to a singing master before her flight draws hired swords into their lives.
Medium level5–10 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What would you do if the man who raised you meant to marry you, and he was fifty, vain, and in love with his own songs? That is the position of Ortensia, a Venetian girl of seventeen, in Stradella.
Stradella at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 h 15 min5 h 45 min fast, 8 h 35 min slow
- Length
- 103,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1909by F. Marion Crawford
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A miserly senator plans to marry his niece
Senator Michele Pignaver of Venice is rich, cultured and careful with his money. Several years after his wife dies, he decides to marry his niece Ortensia as soon as her schooling is done.
Ortensia, seventeen and a half, accepts her fate as any Venetian girl of her day would. Yet she sees through him. She finds him vain, stingy and ridiculous. Her lessons now center on his music, because he wants his bride to sing his songs to envious friends.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1909
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 8 h 15 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Crawford, F. Marion. Stradella. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/stradella.
Crawford, F. M. (2026). Stradella. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/stradella (Original work published 1909)
Crawford, F. Marion. Stradella. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/stradella.
@book{crawford2026stradella,
author = {Crawford, F. Marion},
title = {Stradella},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/stradella},
note = {First published 1909}
}
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What is Stradella about?
Stradella tells of Ortensia, a Venetian girl promised to her miserly uncle, and the singing master Alessandro Stradella who loves her. They flee Venice, pursued by hired swordsmen, and face dangers in Ferrara and Rome.
Is Stradella based on a true story?
Alessandro Stradella was a real seventeenth-century Italian composer and singer, and the novel is set around 1670. Crawford builds an imaginative adventure around him, so the plot and most characters are fiction.
Who are Trombin and Gambardella?
They are two shabby Venetian gentlemen who work as Bravi, swordsmen for hire. Trombin is round-faced and talkative, Gambardella tall and gloomy. Together they take money from several people, and their humor drives much of the book.
The author
F. Marion Crawford
1854–1909 · American novelist
Francis Marion Crawford (1854–1909) was an American novelist and short story writer. He was born in Bagni di Lucca, Italy, and lived in Sorrento, where he died. His novels include Mr. Isaacs (1882), Khaled: A Tale of Arabia (1891), and Stradella (1909). He also wrote supernatural short stories.
More by F. Marion Crawford
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