Kindle Price: $11.99

Save $6.00 (33%)

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the authors

Dacia Maraini
+ Follow
Anna Camaiti Hostert
+ Follow
See all
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Silent Duchess Kindle Edition

by Dacia Maraini (Author), Dick Kitto (Translator), Elspeth Spottiswood (Translator), Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 66 ratings
See all formats and editions
The stunning English translation of the International Man Booker Prize Finalist novel hailed as “a story of grace and endurance, not mere survival” (The New York Times Book Review).
 
Winner of the Premio Campiello, short-listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Award, and published to critical acclaim in fourteen languages, this “spellbinding” historical novel by one of Italy’s premier authors is now available in this luminous new translation (Booklist).
 
In early 18th century Sicily, noblewoman Marianna Ucrìa is trapped in a world of silence after a terrible childhood trauma left her deaf and mute. Married off to a lecherous uncle, she struggles to educate and elevate herself against all convention—and find her true place in a world that sees her as little more than property.
 
In language that conveys the keen vision and deep human insight possessed by her protagonist, Dacia Maraini captures the splendor and the corruption of Marianna’s world, as well as the strength of her unbreakable spirit, in “one of those rare, rich, deep, strange novels that create a world so fantastic and so real you want to start reading it again as soon as you come to the last page” (Newsday).
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    268 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    The Feminist Press at CUNY
  5. Publication date
    January 1, 2000
  6. File size
    2077 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
Next page
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Dacia Maraini is something of a national treasure in Italy. The author of more than 50 books, a director of stage and screen, and an outspoken feminist, Maraini has never been afraid of controversy. The Silent Duchess won prestigious awards in Italy upon its publication there in 1990, and has since been translated into 14 languages. It tells the story of Marianna Ucria, an 18th-century noblewoman who is both deaf and mute following a mysterious childhood trauma. Though outwardly Marianna's life follows the same trajectory as most women's of her class and time--an arranged marriage and endless childbearing--her inner life is quite unique. Within the silent world she occupies, Marianna pursues a vigorous life of the mind; in fact, silence becomes a weapon she wields to defend her deepest, truest self against society's suppression of women's creativity and will. From the first, horrifying images of a child's hanging, through Marianna's forced marriage to her elderly uncle, and finally to her recollection of the trauma that scarred her, The Silent Duchess takes the reader on a remarkable journey through the mores and manners of 18th-century Sicily and into the mind of its enigmatic, courageous heroine.

From Publishers Weekly

The publication in America of Maraini's The Silent Duchess, originally issued in Italy as La hunga vita di Marianna Ucria (1990), is cause for rejoicing. Episodic and essentially plotless, but propelled by an inner tension, this unusual historical novel about the splendid but squalid Sicilian aristocracy of the early 18th century comes closer to belles lettres than a conventional novel. As a result of being sexually abused as a young child, the duchess Marianna (in real life, an ancestor of the author) has lost both voice and hearing and communicates with others by writing notes. A free spirit, she contrives to educate and liberate herself through reading while living in a society that totally subjugates women. (Sicilian aristocrats were so idle and poor, though wealthy in unproductive land, that all members of the family were sacrificed to the eldest son and heir.) The only choices for women of her rank are either an arranged marriage (Marianna's father marries her at 13 to her uncle, who is also her abuser) or betrothal to Christ and life in a convent (the choice of Marianna's daughter, Felice). As Camaiti-Hostert writes in her afterword, this novel is "the story of a life seen, smelled, tasted, and touched"; like a silent movie, the narrative unfolds without sound, but in Maraini's deft hands, this silence becomes a powerful metaphor for the plight of a young woman growing up in an impoverished but proud, unenlightened but self-righteous patriarchy. (Nov.) FYI : The Silent Duchess won Italy's 1990 Premio Campiello and England's 1992 Independent Foreign Fiction Award. It has been translated into 14 languages.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B005FYGT24
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Feminist Press at CUNY (January 1, 2000)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ January 1, 2000
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2077 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 268 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 66 ratings

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Previous page
  1. Anna Camaiti Hostert

    Anna Camaiti Hostert

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

    See more on the author's page
  2. Dacia Maraini

    Dacia Maraini

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

    See more on the author's page
Next page

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
66 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Mary Judge
5.0 out of 5 stars The sensual world of the suppressed Duchess: how to survive a marriage to an Uncle
Reviewed in the United States on August 15, 2016
Verified Purchase
This book has an almost cinematic quality as each chapter in the life of our heroine unfolds. So beautifully written and conceived, yet another story of a woman repressed, this time, deaf dumb and married off at 14 to her uncle. Dacia Maraini places herself inside this character with the greatest of creativity and compassion. There are beautiful passages that describe the sensory world according the our deaf and dumb Duchess, how she perceives moments in nature, how she senses someone's mood, what and how she writes, her varied relationships with her children.
This is a story for all women and sadly so, a story as old as time and that in its way still plays out in our modern world,
and makes one wonder if there will ever be a day when the woman is not suppressed by society and men. Despite the tragedies that our Duchess faces she is the ultimate survivor, and although this story is dark there is redemption here which takes the form of a repressed memory revealed. This is also a vivid window into practices in place in this level of society of Sicily in the 16th century.
7 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
M DiFalco
4.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written. Not quite Lampedusa's "The Leopard" but a ...
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2017
Verified Purchase
Beautifully written. Not quite Lampedusa's "The Leopard" but a good companion piece.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Richard P. Brennan
5.0 out of 5 stars Exactly as described by Amazon.
Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2023
Verified Purchase
Haven’t yet read the book but it is exactly what I ordered.
Helpful
 Report
Carmen Gibson
2.0 out of 5 stars Not for me
Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2024
Verified Purchase
I tried but just couldn't get into the groove of this book. I made 4 attempts and I just never took to it. I, however, can't just walk away. I finished it. It's strange. I'm sure all the underlying meanings just didn't click with me. I had the continuous feeling that the author was trying to say something without saying it. For goodness' sake your an author, spit it out.
Helpful
 Report
Carol Kearns
5.0 out of 5 stars The Silent Duchess
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2013
Verified Purchase
Kept my interest. Loved every minute reading it. Would like more books by author. Just goes to show you not to envy.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Loves the View
5.0 out of 5 stars Portrait of 1700's Sicilian Culture
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2012
Through the story of a deaf and mute duchess, author Dacia Maraini describes the stultifying culture of Sicily in the early 1700's. There is a strong class system with nobles living well, but precariously. They control the lives of those below their rank and on a whim they can pluck someone from miserable poverty and "elevate" them to servitude.

Noble women, who are well dressed and well fed, are similarly moved around, but their fate is determined more by strategy than by whim. The sons are not always pleased with the match made by their parents, but beauty can help the ease a loveless marriage... in the beginning. In this culture, everyone is vulnerable, and no one is happy. Mosquitos and the disease are ever present.

The people are preoccupied with ceremony and rank. The culture looks inward: "To confront other minds, other ideas, is considered in principle an act of perfidy." (p.49). The Duchess is an exception, in her physical isolation, books are her communication. While she has a life of the mind, she cannot escape the culture. While she performs acts of kindness, she understands and uses the tools of control for those she outranks. She will not or cannot follow her heart.

This book is beautifully written. Characters and the tension they inject are poetically drawn, be they major characters such as Don Pietro, who in every scene exudes his technical status as "uncle husband" or minor characters such as that of Guiseppa of whom it is said to be "inconceivable" that she is not married at 23. Many scenes are exquisite depictions of time and place such as the complex upstairs/downstairs relationship of the Duchess and Fila who has been gifted to her, the funeral of Don Pietro and the business matters that follow it, how Marianna seeks a wife for Saro, and the picnic in the vineyard to name a few.

There is an Afterward by Anna Camaiti Hostert. But for the revelation of one plot element, this would have been better as a preface. Its information on author's background and Hostert's interpretation of how Sicily's 1700's inwardness and social structure impoverished the island can better inform the text if they are read first.

This is an excellent novel and I highly recommend it to those who appreciate historical fiction for what it says about place and time.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Lisa A.
2.0 out of 5 stars So, so long
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2017
Verified Purchase
I was required to read this for a class of mine, and while there were sections of text that I enjoyed, over all, the extreme descriptions made the book unreadable at times, and over all painfully boring.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Katha Pollitt
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a rich, beautiful, original novel
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 1998
Dacia Maraini is celebrated in italy, where her books are bestsellers and win important prizes, but she hasn't yet caught on in the United States, where translated fiction gets slighted and there's room for only two or three writers from each foreign country. I hope the Silent Duchess changes that. It's an extraordinary book -- a historical novel set in 18th century Sicily, whose heroine, Marianna Ucria, the deaf and dumb aristocrat of the title, manages, in small and subtle ways, to become an independent spirit despite a forced marriage to her uncle at age 13. The writing is piquant and evocative-- Sicily has never seemed so intense and alive--sights, smells, food). This is a book with everything you'd find in a historical potboiler-- sex, love, violence, family, incest, spectacle, tragedy. But it's a serious word of art, moving, sensuous, thought-provoking. One of the best novels I've read all year!
25 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

peter
5.0 out of 5 stars condition of the book
Reviewed in Canada on April 20, 2015
Verified Purchase
the book is in a very good, lightly used condition.
Report
Mia
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 19, 2016
Verified Purchase
Great novel
One person found this helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars She could not speak but she saw and understood everything
Reviewed in Germany on January 26, 2016
Verified Purchase
For those who have visited Sicily, in particular Palermo and its secret palazzi, this is a must read. A special story about the times if the aristocracy and how they could earn a living ( or not) from their vast estates. The role of women that this Duchess could escape due to her handicap caused by a secret. Could not put it down. The author is one of the best contemporary Italian writers.
Report
Bluebell
4.0 out of 5 stars Stick with it...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 22, 2011
Verified Purchase
It took me a while to get into this book - I thought that maybe the English translation wasn't doing it any favours. However, I stuck with it and can say that in the end I really enjoyed it and was sad to finish - it drew me in. If you want high drama and excitement then this book probably isn't for you, but if you like a slow-burning historical novel with fascinating details about places and interesting characters then I would recommend it.
4 people found this helpful
 Report
Daisymay
1.0 out of 5 stars Product and content awful
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 7, 2022
Verified Purchase
First, this book was described as 'very good', it wasn't.
The content is rubbish, disjointed and nonsensical. In the first few pages we are told that a 7 year old deaf mute child has read and understood Dante's Inferno! Other reviewers said to stick with it, it gets better. Well, it doesn't, I'm a third of the way through and its still rubbish. Don't waste your time.
Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report