Venice

In the magical world of seventeenth-century Venice-lacework palaces flickering in gleaming waterways, opulence and decadence, creative liberty, and political rigidity-we are astounded to find that La Serenissima's dozens of convents housed most of the city's well-to-do girls and women, many of whom had been locked up by force, enclosed for life with little or no recourse to ever step beyond confining walls.

A Discarded Daughter delves into the rich history of Venice, providing framework for the fascinating scenario of how Arcangela Tarabotti, involuntarily cloistered in a "living hell," scaled the confines of Sant'Anna Convent through her iconoclastic texts denouncing Venetian misogyny, public and private.

This informative, inspirational book draws on Arcangela's own words to reflect an indomitable will and prescient feminist spirit. As the marginalized nun lays bare her fury and pain, condemning authoritarian powers responsible for imprisoning Venetian daughters, Suor Arcangela Tarabotti realizes her true vocation, albeit not the one forced upon her as an unwilling, unwitting eleven-year-old child.