The Viper of Milan

The Viper of Milan, originally published in 1906, was Marjorie Bowen's first novel and a favourite book of the author Graham Greene, who said that it taught him that human nature is "not black and white but black and grey". The novel is set in Lombardy in the middle of the 14th century and follows a battle for power between Gian Galeazzo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, and Mastino della Scala, Duke of Verona. As the story opens, in 1360, Visconti is busy expanding his territories and forging alliances; he has forced della Scala out of Verona and taken his wife, Isotta d'Este of Ferrara, as a hostage. It seems that nobody can stop Visconti in his relentless conquest of northern Italy - nobody apart from della Scala, who vows to regain his lost lands and release Isotta from captivity. Meanwhile, Visconti's sister Valentine has problems of her own: her brother has arranged a marriage for her with the Duke of Orleans, while the man she really loves has been imprisoned in a deserted villa outside the city and is slowly starving to death. Another young lady, Graziosa, who lives with her artist father by the western gate of Milan, is also in love - but is her lover really as he seems?