“Lucia in the Age of Napoleon”

A portrait of a remarkable woman who witnessed the turmoil of Napoleon´s assault on Europe

When she married into one of Venice´s most powerful families as a young woman in 1787, Lucia was set for a prosperous and glamorous life in Venice´s twilight years. But then Napoleon´s troops invaded, Venice collapsed, and Lucia and her family´s life was thrown into chaos, as her husband tried to stay in favour with the new regime. Lucia was also struggling with her own troubles: after finding it difficult to conceive, she become pregnant by her lover and was forced to conceal the child´s paternity form her husband. Andrea di Robilant, one of Lucia´s descendants, has drawn on letters and diaries to produce an intimate and vivid picture of this exceptional woman, and the exceptional times she lived in.