The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara - Hardcover

Kertzer, David I.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679450319 ISBN 13: 9780679450313

Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc, 1997

Synopsis

Describes the 1858 kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, the child of a Jewish merchant, by Italian police acting under the orders of the papal Inquisitor, the public outcry that followed, and the impact of the crime on the downfall of papal power in Italy. 30,000 first printing. Tour.

About this title

Review:

Out of seemingly small events are sometimes born great historical moments. The case of young Edgardo Mortara is one. In 1858 the 6-year-old Jewish boy was taken from his parents' home in Bologna, Italy, by agents of the Papal inquisition. The year before, seriously ill, Edgardo had been secretly baptized, by the Mortaras' Catholic servant (or so she claimed); it was against the law for baptized Christians to be raised by Jews, and so, in the eyes of the Church, the kidnapping was entirely justified. Secular Italians did not agree, and thus was set in motion a series of reforms that ended the Church's temporal power in Italy and forged the creation of a liberal, near-democratic state. For his part, young Edgardo became a priest and lived in a Belgian abbey until 1940--just before the invading Germans began to deport and execute all those tainted with Jewish blood. David Kertzer has shaped a remarkable narrative from almost forgotten events.

Review:

"A thrilling history... Kertzer's careful scholarship and fine narrative skill make a great drama." --Boston Globe

"A lucidly drawn, dramatic narrative. Kertzer's account reads like a courtroom drama. As shapely and surprising as fiction." --Newsday

"Brilliant... a book that has all the merits of a historical thriller." --Daily News

"Fascinating... full of rich material.... Kertzer has unearthed an evocative and unjustly forgotten episode of history." --The Washington Post Book World

"A gripping, vivid and well-documented rendering. A highly readable work that is dramatic, moving and informative, as interesting to general readers as it will no doubt prove to historians." --San Francisco Chronicle

"David Kertzer tells a riveting take, with great mastery of the sources." --The New York Review of Books

"David Kertzer's account of this extraordinary but largely forgotten moment in history is told with verve. Sounding much like a conventuonal thriller writer, Kertzer combines a gripping yarn with a details historical reconstruction." --Financial Times

"A spellbinding and intelligent book. The story itself isutterly compelling, but is entirely Kertser's skill as a historian and a writer that allows him to maintain the suspense.... Deftly constructed." --Toronto Globe and Mail

"I read the book, all of it, cover to cover, nonstop, gasping, amazed. What an important and spectacular work! (With the narrative pace of a gripping novel.) One of the most impressive reading nights of my life." --Cynthia Ozick

"A scrupulously researched, elegantly written narrative that deftly combines the take of one family's anguished and fruitless efforts to reclaim their child and the stirring saga of the Risorgimento." --The Jerusalem Report

About this edition

• Publisher: Alfred a Knopf Inc
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0679450319
• ISBN 13: 9780679450313
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 350