The Second Mrs. Gioconda

I typically really like Konigsburg's works, but this one threw me off. It is about a 14-year-old boy who becomes an apprentice for Leonardo da Vinci. Promising plot, right? Think again. I don't know exactly where it went wrong, but here are some thoughts: I just couldn't identify with the main character. He was impersonal and annoying. Also, the storyline was kind of strange. I thought that all of the scattered parts would be building up to some culmination at the end, but it was really kind of anti-climatic for me. Though this one was an award winner from the people who really count, it definitely lost my vote.

I always want Konigsburg's other books to be as good as I thought The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler was when I was a kid.

They never are. In fact, The Mixed-Up Files isn't as good now as it was when I was nine.

This one is a readable little confection that has absolutely nothing to do with Leonardo painting the Mona Lisa. Nothing. But it was still a fine diversion and made me want to delve further into that era of history (like The Agony and the Ecstasy did, except I spent many more hours reading that one)

The book was excellent.

Interesting little book with an interesting ending. All about Leonardo

This book wasn't boring, but it wasn't fun. I think that maybe they could have talked about Madonna Lisa a little bit more. Otherwise, it was a good book.

I enjoy Mrs. Konigsburg's end-of-story reveals; therefore, The Second Mrs. Gioconda was a pleaser.

This was a really cute book, with a really cute story line. I like that the story was told from the perspective of one of his apprentices. The title of the book is a little misleading though, as "the second Mrs. Giaconda" doesn't make an appearance until the last three pages of the book. But I suppose it's titled what it is, because the whole book is leading up to that point. So if you're reading the book and thinking, "Where the heck is this 'second Mrs. Giaconda?', just keep reading the book, because they're building up to that point. It didn't make much sense to me until the last few pages what she had to do with anything, but then it all made sense, and it kind of hit me in a sad way that made my heart break a little bit. :( Anyways, all in all, I'd recommend this book to anyone who is interested in this time period or if you're studying it in school and need to read a book about Leonardo da Vinci and his works. I, personally, was studying this time period in school, and the program I use recommended this book as like a more in depth study/story of Leonardo, and I ended up really liking it. I also thought it was really neat because I went to Italy while I was reading this book, and tomorrow I'm leaving for Paris, France and my family and I might be going to the Louvre and we might see the Mona Lisa, so it's really neat to go to these places and see these things that these people have seen, done, and been to. So yeah, it's a good book, that I'd recommend to anyone!!!! ;) :) ( Also, I apologize for my possible over use of commas, it's a problem and I do it quite often, and for my sort of repetitiveness. :))

“The Second Mrs.Gioconda” written by E. L. Konigsburg published by Simon and Schuster in 1975. The novel is 140 pages long in the genre of Young Adult Historical Fiction. In the novel, it mainly talked about the story between the intelligent master Leonardo da Vinci, an ordinary boy named Salai (Gian Giacomo de’ Carprotti) who Leonardo called a ‘thief’ and a ‘liar’. Overall, I think that the novel is fabulous and interesting. The novel had a great series of events that pushed the story towards the readers and that’s what interests me the most.

The book was set mostly in the city of Milan in Italy during the renaissance in the 1300s’ and is told from a third-person omniscient point of view. The author told the story of a boy at court and meeting an important and fabulous friend of his and his master at court, the Duchess of Milan, Beatrice d’Este. The story has walked through Salai’s life from the age of 10 meeting Leonardo near the Castle in Milan and becoming his apprentice and meeting Beatrice at the Duke Ludovico Sforza court in Milan. Then watching Beatrice having a baby 3 years later and Beatrice dying after she’s had her second baby to the invasion of France and leaving with Leonardo to Florence. Lastly painting the portrait of the second wife of an unimportant merchant and made the painting one of the most widely known work of art worldwide by Leonardo da Vinci, the ‘Mona Lisa’ 3 years after moving to Florence. All of these events have been an important point in Salai’s life and made him be remembered by the magnificent man, Leonardo da Vinci. This book had a fabulous plotline. The events were connected to each other and made the story flow fluently. The personality and the moods of each character built up to the thoughts and opinions of each character when they see events and problems happening. These things made the novel successful.

I liked how the book was based on real characters and events in European history. That gives a strong background to the novel. I think that the title of the book didn’t have a powerful relationship to the book because, for me, I don’t really see any foreshadowing to hint us to the title of the novel until the very end of the novel. I find the novel partly interesting and partly boring because the novel took a lot of time to explain some small details in both important and unimportant events and I find that giving the important events in the novel interests me and giving details in the unimportant events do the opposite. I would recommend this novel to readers who are interested in the Renaissance or people who know something about classical thoughts, opinions and art because of somethings that the novel talks about is based on the thoughts of the Renaissance people and lifestyle, some people wouldn’t understand some of the concepts and opinions of the Renaissance people.

After all, the book left me a significant impression. I learn a lot more about how the court life and life at an art studio with a master is like. I also learned more about the events and people in history. To me, the life of Leonardo da Vinci is amazing with his apprentice Salai and I truly enjoyed reading and listening to the novel.