Armino
Fabbia grew up in the little town of Ruffiano, where his father was the
custodian of the old Ducal palace. Armino and his older brother Aldo knew every
part of the palace.
When WWII broke out, everything went wrong. Aldo was shot
down in his plane and died, their father was arrested and died in a prisoner of
war camp en Armino and his mother fled. He never returned to Ruffiano.
Now he is a
guide at a touring company, that organises tours around Italy. It is his job to
make sure all the people are happy, the reservations are made and all problems
are solved.
During a
stop in Rome, a beggarwoman is murdered, a woman Armino helped just moments
before. He finds out she was the servant who took care of him when he was a
child. His revelation makes him burn all his bridges: he leaves the
touringcompany and goes back to Ruffiano.
Here he
finds a little town where time stood still and that has changed in other
respects. At the university there is a rivalry between the new faculty of
commerce and economics and the old faculties like arts and education.
But the
ducal palace is still there and even the old history of the dukes of Ruffiano
is not forgotten. There is somebody at the university that wants to bring this
old history back to life and is prepared to do many things to make this happen.
This will have a huge impact on Armino, when he finds out his own personal
history is also tied up with this.
The flight of the falcon is one of the historical novels Daphne du Maurier wrote. In general it
is not seen as one of her best novels, but I must say I really enjoyed it. Perhaps because I read it while I was in Bologna and although this is not the
city Ruffiano is based on, it is still a medieval Italian city with a
university. So that made the story very alive for me, I could easily not only
imagine the students running around the city, but also the duke on his horse,
so many centuries ago.
I really
enjoyed how she managed to link together the present (sixties Italy), WWII and
the history of the bad duke. Because history is always linked, and events are
never on their own. I also loved the parallels with the present day and WWII.
With Armino you begin to question the events when you learn more and you
realize that something is not right. Because there is a difference between
standing in a tradition and misusing history for your own benefit.
Although I
agree this was not her best novel, there was a lot I enjoyed in The flight of the falcon.
Published
in 1965
Glad you enjoyed this one. It's not high on my du Maurier reading list, but she's such a great author I'll probably get to it someday. I just checked out The House on the Strand last week, so that will be my next Daphne du Maurier. I hope it's good. Have you read it?
ReplyDeleteI have not read it yet, but it is on my list as the next book by Daphne du Maurier I would like to read. I am curious to hear what you think of it!!!
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