On Entering the World of Niccolo

Overview and Issue

• Article discusses how a series of novels about the 1460s, written in the 1980s, can be relevant in the 21st century.
• WG137

Abstract

• The author, being only 16 years of age, offers personal and very incisive insights on what Dorothy Dunnett's novels have meant to her in terms of life lessons. She predominantly uses the HON to illustrate her arguments whilst also making comparisons with the LC. "There are certain scenes to which I can point, and mark out, and say: Here. This one. This moment changed me." In comparing the two series, she argues: "(HoN) is a story for all of us, on some level, because it does not just belong to Nicholas. It’s the tale of how even people of less than exceptional genius or lowly birth can overcome the most personal of barriers. ...People who were not born into a refined world of etiquette and riches, who were not raised on Latin poetry, who were not handed the society in which they will flourish on a silver platter. It’s about the struggle to build your own ideal reality...".

Author

• Mia E. Khachidze

Dunnett Book Citations

• CM
• SOG
• GEM

Historical Characters

• Dorothy Dunnett

Fictional Characters

• Francis Crawford of Lymond
• Niccolò
• Gelis van Borselen
• Christian Stewart
• Philippa Somerville
• Sybilla Crawford
• Archie Abernethy

Locations

• (none)

Literature

• (none)

Illustrations

• Portrait of a Young Woman by Lorenzo di Credi of Florence, 1490–1500. Credit: Bequest of Richard De Wolfe

Brixey/Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Historical Events

• (none)

Other References

• (none)

Quotes from Dunnett

• (none)