16 h 11 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 16 h 11 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if everyone believes you are dead—and returning means facing the people you trust most?
Count Fabio Romani believes himself the luckiest of men. In Naples, he has wealth, a fine house, and Nina, his young and admired wife. His friend Guido Ferrari comes and goes like a brother. Then cholera grips the city, and a terrible mistake about Fabio’s death tears his settled life apart.
In Marie Corelli’s Vendetta, Fabio tells his own story of terror, betrayal, and disguise. Instead of simply reclaiming his place, he turns toward patient, carefully planned revenge. Love gives way to suspicion, and justice becomes something he means to carry out himself. But what does vengeance demand from a man who is not cruel by nature?
What you’ll discover
- A city gripped by fear Enter Naples as cholera brings hurried burials and breaks apart the security Fabio takes for granted.
- Trust at the breaking point Follow Fabio’s ties to Nina and Guido, where love and friendship become sources of pain.
- Terror told from within Fabio’s own voice draws you close to his fear in the vault and his altered life.
- The patience of revenge Watch disguise and cold planning take the place of the count’s once unquestioning trust.
- The cost of vengeance Face the question beneath Fabio’s pursuit: what happens when a wounded man makes himself the judge?
Who will love it
For readers who love dark romance, Italian settings, secret identities and carefully laid schemes. This story also welcomes anyone drawn to betrayal, revenge and a narrator who speaks straight to you.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A rich man, a loyal friend, a lovely bride
- Cholera summer and a fateful morning walk
- Waking in the dark family vault
- A brigand's treasure and a way out
- A ragpicker's warning and a king's kindness
- The night in the avenue changes everything
- Count Oliva, the white bear of Palermo
- A slow trap closes round two false lovers
- What the vendetta costs the man who plans it
Who’s who
- Fabio RomaniA wealthy Neapolitan count who trusts his wife and friend, is buried alive, and returns in disguise determined to take a perfect revenge.
- NinaFabio's beautiful young wife, raised in a convent, who loves jewels, flattery and her own reflection above everything else.
- Guido FerrariFabio's charming painter friend, poor in money, vain about his looks, and bold in betraying Fabio's trust.
- StellaFabio and Nina's small daughter, gentle and watchful, who is neglected by her mother and clings to the kind stranger.
- Vincenzo FlammaThe quiet Tuscan valet who serves Count Oliva faithfully and grows to love his master without knowing his secret.
- Carmelo NeriA fierce Sicilian brigand whose hidden treasure in the Romani vault pays for Fabio's whole scheme.
- Andrea LuzianiA cheerful Sicilian ship captain who helps Fabio reach Palermo and keeps his secrets, asking no questions.
- GiacomoThe aged butler at Villa Romani who loved his young master and cannot believe he is truly dead.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 16 h 11 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Vendetta in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Vendetta
by Marie Corelli · 1886
A man buried alive in Naples claws his way out of a cholera tomb and finds a treasure and a vow of revenge.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Can a man be buried alive, climb out of his family tomb, and tell no one? That is where Fabio Romani begins his own story.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A rich man, a loyal friend, a lovely bride
Fabio Romani is a young Neapolitan count with a marble villa above the Bay of Naples. He loves books, avoids women and trusts his closest friend, the poor painter Guido Ferrari. Then he sees a girl in a church procession and marries her within weeks.
Her name is Nina, and she is fifteen or sixteen, golden haired and raised in a convent. Fabio adores her. Guido comes and goes freely at the villa, bringing flowers and praise, and when a baby daughter named Stella is born, Guido speaks strangely about how little Fabio suspects.
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What is Vendetta by Marie Corelli about?
It follows Count Fabio Romani of Naples, who is buried alive during the 1884 cholera outbreak. After escaping, he discovers his wife and best friend have betrayed him and plans a slow, disguised revenge.
Is Vendetta based on a true story?
Corelli's preface says the central events are based on something that happened in Naples during the cholera outbreak of 1884. The characters and plot are told as fiction, and she wrote the preface in August 1886.
Who is Count Cesare Oliva in Vendetta?
Cesare Oliva is the false name Fabio Romani uses after his escape. With white hair, a beard, dark glasses and a harsh manner, he presents himself as a rich, cynical stranger newly arrived in Naples.
The author
Marie Corelli
1855–1924 · British novelist
Marie Corelli was an English novelist and one of the best-selling authors of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, at her height outselling most of her famous contemporaries. The Sorrows of Satan, her 1895 tale of a devil's bargain in literary London, is often called one of the world's first modern bestsellers.
More by Marie Corelli
All 5 booksMore like this
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