Artful Musings

SARAH DUNANT

Tuesday, April 13, 7:30 p.m.
Horchow Auditorium

British novelist, broadcaster, and critic Sarah Dunant is best known in the United States for the historical novels The Birth of Venus (2004), In the Company of the Courtesan (2006), and Sacred Hearts (2009), her triptych of books set in the Italian Renaissance. 

Set in a convent in Ferrara in 1570, Sacred Hearts is a multifaceted love story encompassing the passions of the flesh, the exultation of the spirit, and the power of friendship. A complex relationship of trust and betrayal exists between a rebellious young novice, Serafina, and Soeur Zuana, an older, sympathetic nun who runs the convent’s hospital and pharmacy. Serafina has been ripped from her proposed marriage and confined against her will—for life; she sets in motion a chain of events that will shake the convent to its core. Outside the convent’s walls, the dictates of the Counter-Reformation begin to purge the Catholic Church and impose a regime of oppression.

This novel is ultimately about the indomitable spirit of women in an age when religious, political, and social forces were all stacked against them. The Washington Post says, “This novel unequivocably does what fiction is supposed to do and rarely does: It takes us to a place we could never personally experience.” 

“[W]hen it comes to writing, I just want to say that the novel is not the author. Just as the life is not the work or the work the life; instead literature is a kind of alchemy: turning lead into gold. Or at least that’s the ambition.”
—Sarah Dunant

Before the event:
6:30 p.m. Join Dr. Heather MacDonald, The Lillian and James H. Clark Associate Curator of European Art, on a tour of artworks in the Museum’s collections that resonate with themes in Sacred Hearts.
 
 

Ticket Prices
Full $37
Reduced $32
Student $15
 

ORDER ONLINE or call 214-922-1818

Photo Credit: Charlie Hopkinson

Arts & Letters Live is supported by the Kay Cattarulla Endowment for the Literary and Performing Arts, TACA, The George and Fay Young Foundation, The Hoglund Foundation, The Eugene McDermott Foundation, and Annual Series Supporters. Additional support provided by Friends of the Dallas Public Library. 

Air transportation provided in part by American Airlines. Hotel accommodations provided in part by The Adolphus.
Promotional partners include The Dallas Morning News, Einstein Printing, and
 

The Dallas Museum of Art is supported in part by the generosity of Museum members and donors and by the citizens of Dallas through the City of Dallas/Office of Cultural Affairs and the Texas Commission on the Arts.

All contents © 2010 Dallas Museum of Art. All rights reserved. Please note that any use of content downloaded or printed from this site is limited to non-commercial personal or educational use, including “fair use” as defined by U.S. copyright laws.