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Niccolò Rising

(The House of Niccolò #1)

Dorothy Dunnett

4.27 · Rating details · 3,949 ratings · 341 reviews

With the bravura storytelling and pungent authenticity of detail she brought to her acclaimed Lymond Chronicles, Dorothy Dunnett, grande dame of the historical novel, presents The House of Niccolò series. The time is the 15th century, when intrepid merchants became the new knighthood of Europe. Among them, none is bolder or more cunning than Nicholas vander Poele of Bruges ...more

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Paperback, 470 pages

Published March 30th 1999 by Vintage (first published 1986)

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Oct 13, 2018 Jeffrey Keeten rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

”The hand, heavily ringed, lay curled in the air, as if about to curve it in a greeting. Then M. de Riberac swept it downwards. His palm remained cupped towards him. His outer hand, with its heavy quartz ring, burst its way carefully down Claes’ cheek, from his eye to his chin, holding its blood-infilled course till the end. Then he drew his wrist back and let it dangle. Below the ring, blood appeared on the floor.”

photo House-of-Niccolo-by-Dorothy-Dunnett_zpsg3n4c2xd.jpg

Claes is an apprentice to the House of Charetty of Bruges. He is, for all int ...more

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Jan 11, 2010 Rosina Lippi rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: people interested in a complex and detailed historical novel

Shelves: fiction, reviewed-here, best-beloved

This is my favorite historical novel, bar none.

I have re-read this novel and the rest of the series many times, but some things never change, no matter how many times I pick them up.

First, I have to read Niccolo very, very slowly. Dunnett has absolutely no patience with lazy readers. The plot is very complex and she doesn't coddle: you read closely, or you will be lost. It's amazing, really, (and heartening) that these stories are so popular and widely read in a day and age where people seem to ...more

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Dec 28, 2008 Lightreads rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, historical

This is the story of Claes AKA Nicholas AKA Niccolo van der Poele and his meteoric, often painful rise from a dyer’s apprentice to one of the premier businessmen in sixteenth-century Europe. Nicholas is brilliant, hilarious, and possessed of the sort of intellect and drive that are simultaneously intoxicating and very dangerous. He is a dyer, a toymaker, a natural mathematician, a fighter, a shameless cheat, a man of complex and often alarming motivations. He forms the backbone of these books, a This is the story of Claes AKA Nicholas AKA Niccolo van der Poele and his meteoric, often painful rise from a dyer’s apprentice to one of the premier businessmen in sixteenth-century Europe. Nicholas is brilliant, hilarious, and possessed of the sort of intellect and drive that are simultaneously intoxicating and very dangerous. He is a dyer, a toymaker, a natural mathematician, a fighter, a shameless cheat, a man of complex and often alarming motivations. He forms the backbone of these books, along with his friends and lovers and enemies, and the stories sprawl out around him to take in Bruges and Turkey and Cyprus and Africa, politics and business and high social drama, hilarity and romance and terrible tragedy.

The books are simply brilliant, in the way of writing that grabs you by the throat and the brainstem equally. Dunnett’s command of history is engrossing, her prose tense and precise, her characters crackling. Her writing is impressive because it looks easy – there’s something so perfectly balanced and poised about these books, as if every word is in the right place, and there to do some work. And they certainly do work – I laughed, I gasped, I squealed, I sniffled, I groaned. I also paid extraordinary amounts of attention, because not a conversation goes by that doesn’t have at least two layers tucked slyly beneath, horrifying or funny or just illuminating. These books are quite honestly the most intellectually invigorating things I’ve read in years.

I have quibbles (hi, I’m Light, and I quibble with books). Dunnett seems to really enjoy a helping of dramatic irony, both in portraying characters who spend a great deal of time wondering and thrashing about disasters the reader already knows about, and in ducking into the heads of people who spectacularly fail to comprehend Nicholas and the tides that move around him. It’s frankly annoying, though I should also clarify this is predictably my least favorite literary device.

I was also a bit . . . overwhelmed, by the end of Scales of Gold. Dunnett has a way of punching you in the kidneys in the last four pages, and perhaps it’s that these books are the only fiction I’ve been reading for nearly two months, but by the end the twist of family and revenge and counter-revenge had been amped up to a pitch I found a bit ear-splitting. Baroque is perhaps the word I’m looking for. I couldn’t put these books down, but now I desperately need to read anything else for a long time before I go on. Which is also the sign of incredibly . . . operant literature, come to think of it.

Quite the best things I’ve read in years, no exaggeration or caveats.

...more

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Sep 05, 2015 aPriL does feral sometimes rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adventure, historical-fiction, literary, mysteries-potboilers-thrillers, illuminating, favorites

‘Niccolo Rising’ is a work of narrative genius. If you enjoy that sort of thing, and historical fiction, and a taut dense construction, you will put this book down after finishing with a feeling of amazement and admiration for the author.

Dorothy Dunnett, the author, has the kind of intelligence and in-depth education many Ph.D. researchers of European history possess, along with the creativity and awareness of respected MFA Writer’s Workshops’ graduates.

(As a grumpy sideways comment, I don’t f ‘Niccolo Rising’ is a work of narrative genius. If you enjoy that sort of thing, and historical fiction, and a taut dense construction, you will put this book down after finishing with a feeling of amazement and admiration for the author.

Dorothy Dunnett, the author, has the kind of intelligence and in-depth education many Ph.D. researchers of European history possess, along with the creativity and awareness of respected MFA Writer’s Workshops’ graduates.

(As a grumpy sideways comment, I don’t feel the MFA students of this century have the deeper emotional tones of human beings foremost in their writings, whatever the talent. Many twenty- and 21st-century authors with MFA degrees lean far into Modern or Post-Modern art territory. After some home-schooled explorations on my own, I must add I find the early 18th-century predecessors of and the actual period books described as Modern and Post-Modern literature to be distressingly sterile and dul(l)y compliant of literary deconstruction attributes, even if initially stimulating and superficially intellectual; at least I think so of those I have sampled from the recommended reading lists from recent decades. But I am digressing.)

I am certain to hurt feelings or sensibilities in my assessment that the ‘House of Niccolo’ series (8 books) is for expert readers only, but there I go - I wrote it down anyway.

The plot of ‘Niccolo Rising’ is not easy to follow, or describe, because the novel is a dense story of many threads, with politically-connected characters, many of whom are merchants with many short, seemingly unrelated, discursions on money and goods, much movement around 15th-century European city\principalities, and the actual aristocratic families which were in control, weaving in actual European history and warfare. In addition, making the book a marvel of construction, there are a multitude of hidden secrets and mysteries woven into the story that are not obvious to the reader until the last 50 or so pages. I only expose this because this series has been around for a few decades, and I think the density of the various plots (and writing) will very likely cause most readers who pick up these books to toss them after a hundred pages or so if not given encouragement to stick out the reading. It is a struggle to get beyond the first half of the book, but the reward of the ending makes it worthwhile.

The hero Claes, or Niccolo, won my heart as I saw his real tribulations, gradually revealed, that sprung from a humble beginning, along with his struggles against class and poverty, which were hidden behind a placid accepting smile of dimples and youthful simplicity to which the reader is initially introduced. Niccolo is a polymath, as it turns out, with a strategic genius Napoleon would have envied, along with a charismatic personality and a prodigal memory. The density of the plot matches the mult-dimensional intelligence of Niccolo (and, I suspect, the author), who is only 18 years of age throughout most of the novel. However, despite the taut procedural style of the writing, emotional tones are not neglected, even if often not spelled out. I would say it is a book that could claim ‘The Three Musketeers’ by Alexandre Dumas as a progenitor.

I recommend admirers of The Ice and Fire series (Game of Thrones) give this series a try, but be warned that it is a high-end intellectual sword (no sorcery) historical fiction written by an intelligent educated writer with a serious knowledge of the politics and customs of the late Middle Ages, where it takes place. I think she has a taut and thick procedural-plot style of writing (somewhat similar to police procedurals), though, which eliminated excessive descriptions or the filling in of any gaps of the reader’s knowledge about European history during the Middle Ages. My edition included maps, which are helpful, but honestly, I think a reader has to have more than a passing idea of the wars, personalities and developmental state of European society during the 15th century to be able to get beyond the first 200 pages, as well as an excellent ability to decipher English sentences. I kid you not. The author does not cater to occasional readers or weekend students of history. I thought she had obvious expectations that the reader had better keep up to enjoy the story because she was not going to waste time in extraneous descriptions or explanations. I felt like I did when I graduated with my college programming degree to only later discover that I knew nothing after meeting true techies who had been programming and tinkering with computers since they were children.

I intend to read the rest of the series; however, I will stop this series for now to read other books on my shelf. Perhaps as the series progresses the main character’s heroic tendencies may change, I don’t know, but as I believe I can regard myself as a literary reader outside of the (Ivory) Tower, a ‘wilder’ (readers of ‘The Wheel of Time’ series will understand), I enjoyed reading this book very much, and I count it as one of my favorites.
...more

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Jan 31, 2021 Klaus rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: january2021tbr, dunnett, historical-fiction

23/25 (92%) 5 stars.
description

Is it as brilliant as the Lymond Chronicles? No.
Am I a bit sad about that? Hm. In a way yes, in a way no. Yes because obviously I'd hoped for another emotional rollercoaster that's filled with brilliance all over the place. And no, because I see that while it isn't as excellent as The Best Series Of All Time (TM), it might get there. There are three major reasons why this isn't as perfect as Dunnett's other series, and I'll explain them in a bit, but this is still so much be ...more

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Oct 15, 2015 Marquise rated it liked it

Shelves: plot-elements-from-ludicrousville, character-is-annoying, sprinkle-some-fantasy-to-taste, the-things-i-read-for-lymond, unbelievability-is-a-plot-killer, historical-fiction, hugely-disappointing, historical-setting-1400s, first-book-read-only, so-verbose-and-meandering

It's been a long, long while since I've had to compel myself to read a book till the end, and I don't think it's been one of those times when perseverance is rewarded.

The thing with this book is that, whilst it's the trademark Dunnett style of snail-paced buildup that explodes on the very last track of the race course before the finish line, neither the plot nor the characters are worth trudging on for so long (this isn't a small book) unless you like this setting, the theme of merchants, and ha It's been a long, long while since I've had to compel myself to read a book till the end, and I don't think it's been one of those times when perseverance is rewarded.

The thing with this book is that, whilst it's the trademark Dunnett style of snail-paced buildup that explodes on the very last track of the race course before the finish line, neither the plot nor the characters are worth trudging on for so long (this isn't a small book) unless you like this setting, the theme of merchants, and have an exceptional tolerance for convoluted storytelling.

And I don't. I will take any obtuse and cryptic plot anytime—hey, Lymond is ten times harder and I read and reread that series!—so long as I find it compelling, which didn't happen this time. I simply couldn't care less about merchant schemes, dyeshops and clothes and travelling here and there and yonder with a commercial company. Bruges, the main setting, was of little interest as well, and the comings and goings dragged me to such depths of boredom that the occasional spurts of action didn't hold my attention for long, and the twists that were supposed to make this worthwhile by the end came just too late to compensate for the long wait. Yes, I realise that this is Dame Dorothy's style, I am quite familiar with that, she has done this often, and I am sure it'd have been worthwhile if the characters elicited a warm disposition that would at least help, since the plot wasn't compelling on its own.

But no luck there either. The characters are perhaps the poorer aspect in the book. Nicholas left me indifferent, I didn't care at all for any of the de Charetty children nor their mother, Katelina was irritating, Gelis was a Philippa wannabe with less charm, the merchant-mercenary troop had none that could hold a candle to the St. Mary men, and Simon . . . It's way too obvious that the antagonist in this series is an idiot.

I'd have loved it if at least one of the characters had grabbed my attention, as that would have motivated me to continue. It was what had me continuing with the previous series by Dunnett: I didn't have a good reaction to reading Lymond initially, but there were other characters in the first book that I liked very much and wanted to see again in spite of the main lead, so I continued and eventually came to love the books to bits. Here, neither the plot nor the characters interested me, and I very much doubt I'll pick up another book in this series. I'd heard casual comments before that Nicholas' story suffers greatly in comparison to Lymond's story with some readers that started with the latter first, and in my case it's been proven true. ...more

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Dec 12, 2007 Chrissie rated it did not like it

Shelves: belgium, dnf, audible, disliked, hf, returned

ETA: No, I cannot do it. I cannot give a book two stars if it is so bad I cannot finish it!

*********************************

I tried to read this book once before, and I gave up. Now several friends are reading this and so I thought it might be worth another try. I failed again. This time I read through 12 chapters.

What is wrong? What didn’t I like?

There are so many people; I have difficulty keeping them all straight. Sure I get the main gist of what is happening, but the details are too compl ...more

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Oct 24, 2011 Sequelguerrier rated it it was amazing

This will do for the whole series! Far be it from me to feed anyone's book addiction but have you met Dorothy Dunnett and her Nicolo series? They are historical novels set in late middle age/early renaissance Europe. They centre on the live of group of people in the great trading city of Brugge, then part of the independent duchy of Burgundy. The main character is one Nicholas van der Poele, who rises from the dyeing vats to head a trading house, a bank, a mercenary unit ... and has adventures a ...more

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Jun 15, 2014 Cphe rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: absolutely-fabulous, historical, assassin, angst, series, niccolo

I approached this book, the first in the series with a good deal of trepidation. I had finished The Lymond Chronicles earlier in the year and didn't think that this book, or main character would be able to match the level of fascination that I had viewed Francis Lymond.

So I was relieved, very relieved to have another worthy character to be involved with. Niccolo vander Poele is quite mesmerising and the plot in this story is as riveting and convoluted as only Dorothy Dunnett can deliver.

To my mi ...more

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Aug 21, 2011 Karen Witzler rated it really liked it

Shelves: novels-1980-s, history-through-royals, english-ladies, especial-favorites-formative

I was thinking of this over Valentine's Day as it has not one, but two, of my favorite written love scenes of all that I've ever read. ...more

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Mar 05, 2011 Joy rated it it was amazing

While expanding my knowledge of Medici Italy in MAGNIFICO, I was reminded over and over of peripheral characters in The House of Niccolo, the Renaissance series by the magnificent Dorothy Dunnett. With Unger as background, I decided, I could revisit this series with a better understanding of Niccolo's world. Was I ever right. :-)

And there's Niccolo. Apprentice develops into continental financier: Niccolo, whose many pranks with Felix, heir to the Charetty company, are constantly getting him into ...more

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Aug 27, 2011 Yasaman rated it it was amazing

I am kind of in love with this book. And Nicholas.

After many enthusiastic recs, I read the first book of Dorothy Dunnett's Chronicles of Lymond series last year, and though I found it a rather difficult read at first, it was a rewarding one. An exhausting one too, so I didn't immediately go on to read the rest of the series. While browsing at Bookman though, I saw they had Dunnett's Niccolo Rising, the first book in her "prequel" series to Lymond, following Claes, later Nicholas, Vander Poele in I am kind of in love with this book. And Nicholas.

After many enthusiastic recs, I read the first book of Dorothy Dunnett's Chronicles of Lymond series last year, and though I found it a rather difficult read at first, it was a rewarding one. An exhausting one too, so I didn't immediately go on to read the rest of the series. While browsing at Bookman though, I saw they had Dunnett's Niccolo Rising, the first book in her "prequel" series to Lymond, following Claes, later Nicholas, Vander Poele in 1460 Bruges. I picked it up, and it sat hanging around my room for a while, until I chucked it in my bag to take with me to Big Bear over Thanksgiving. In an idle moment, I picked it up to start reading it, and fifty pages in I couldn't stop.

Niccolo Rising does not come off to quite such a damnably difficult and opaque start as Game of Kings does. With Game of Kings, you're scrambling to figure out what in the hell Lymond is up to, if he is who he seems, if he isn't, what the fuck he's even saying because God knows it takes a PhD in Renaissance lit to untangle it all, and what is all this history happening, I don't know anything about Scottish history, etc etc.

Claes comes off as rather more easy to understand at first: he's a simple-minded idiot, and he's just let a cannon fall into the canal. Except, he's not simple-minded, and maybe there's something more to this cannon falling into the canal, because he's a Dunnett protagonist, and no series of hers is going to hinge around a simple-minded dyemaker's apprentice who lets cannons fall into canals for no reason. So Claes has to be more than he seems, and it takes reading closely to figure out how at first. The plot of the book essentially charts Nicholas's rise up the ranks of society from dyemaker's apprentice in the Charetty company, to...well, that will spoil it, and as of the third book in the series, he's still rising.

The twists and turns of the plot are interesting enough, at least to me: Nicholas has a head for business, and business and economics were inextricably tied to politics in the 15th century. Nicholas's rise mainly centers around money, and earning lots of it while clawing his way up the social ladder. Besides the plot though, it was figuring out Nicholas/Claes that kept me reading so avidly, and it was one exchange early on in the book that absolutely hooked me:

"You do not like the handsome Simon, young varlet? You are jealous, perhaps? He is well dressed, and talks to beautiful demoiselles such as this lady. But he cannot speak Italian, or make children laugh, or be concerned for his friend as you are. Why dislike him?"

The youth Claes considered, his overbright gaze on the Greek. Then he said, "I don't dislike anyone."

Adorne said, "But you hurt them. You mock. You mimic. You offended the lady Katelina yesterday and today."

The gaze turned on him. "But they offend me, and I don't complain. People are what they are. Some are harder to pity than others. Felix would like to dress like my lord Simon, but he is seventeen, he will change. My lord Simon is not seventeen, but he acts like an oaf, and has the talents, you would say, of a girl; which must be a mortification to his father. But I think, Meester Adorne, that he does speak Italian, because he made a joke about you in that language. The lady Katelina will remember."

After watching him play the fool and seem cheerfully oblivious, this is the first bit of the real Claes Dunnett really shows: his brutal honesty and the way he can take people apart. This is Nicholas, who has a rather frightening intellect that's revealed in bits and pieces throughout the book. Nicholas kind of reduces me to flapping my hands. The whole series reduces me to flapping my hands. Because on the face of it, it can seem kind of dry. But trust me, all the business and politics and complex character relationships and hidden motivations come together to form something wildly compelling and engrossing.

I feel like I should review the whole series in one go, because as it is I'm still trying to figure Nicholas out. Also, I am in the place where I desperately want things to turn out okay for Nicholas. I am over-invested, okay. And it's not that Nicholas is a woobie-type character, Dunnett is pretty good at bringing him close to ridiculous woobie territory then swerving away from it. One minute it's all "omg no one understands him and he's weeping quietly and alone from his terrible whipping," and then it's "ho shit did he just orchestrate a byzantine and complex plot to have this dude killed?!" ...more

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Sep 24, 2008 Mo rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction

The Great Niccolò Re-read of 2014, or This Time I Will Actually Pay Attention and Understand Things, Dammit.

Dorothy Dunnett's plots are like a Rube Goldberg machine. Niccolò Rising is both a Rube Goldberg machine in itself and the beginning of the even bigger and more elaborate Rube Goldberg machine that is the House of Niccolò series. On first read, it's confusing, but the bright side is that every re-read is more and more enjoyable as you come to fully understand the intricacies of Dunnett's w ...more

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Aug 09, 2012 Leslie rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Leslie by: Joan Garland

Shelves: historical-fiction

If Dunnett's Lymond saga was too difficult for you, you should try the Niccolo series... Same great writing but a little more transparent plots and much fewer foreign language quotes. This series is a must for historical fiction fans!

June 2015 reread
I was surprised on this reread by how much of the plot of the entire series is laid out in this first book. I don't mean that there is a lot of hidden foreshadowing but almost all the main characters were introduced and the stage was set. I enjoyed s ...more

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Feb 06, 2010 Jerry rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical, recommended, favorites

The House of Niccolo starts in 1460 in Bruges then moves to the city state of Venice and ends up in Trebizond at the end of the Byzantine Empire. Breathtaking in scope. Thru the 7 books (500 + pages each) you go to all the same places as Lymond does in the Lymond Chronicles but add in Iceland and Mali (as the first white man to make it that deep into the African continent). It follows the title character and his female love interest which is sometimes actual love but mostly revenge trading off b ...more

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Oct 30, 2010 Tocotin rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: women-writers, historical-fiction, my-own-books, contemporary-literature, used-books

Moderately interesting so far. A lot of - sometimes too much - detail threaten to suffocate the story at times. Decent characters which appear to be way too savvy about the current political occurrences, as if they had access to newspapers twice a day. Author apparently in love with her style. But I kinda like the main character and I'll see what happens.

All right, I've finished it. I'm confused. I'm glad to have read it, but I can't say it gave me enough pleasure. I persevered, and was given so ...more

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Jun 01, 2012 Elizabetta rated it it was amazing

Shelves: hist-rom, faves, paper-or-oop, mainstr

Love, love love Ms. Dunnett's writing. This is historical fiction written by a master story teller. She gives us a main character so surprising and complex in a world so richly drawn -- an amazing tour de force. Niccolo is a dense, complex read and you have to keep track of a lot. A lot of characters and plot twists. If this isn't your thing then this may not be the book for you. But if you love intrigue, mystery, adventure and romance delivered by a fantastic writer you must give this book a tr ...more

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Oct 09, 2015 SamuraiKitty rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, historical

This review is for the entire 8 book series. There will be no spoilers. I am also going to add a review under "Gemini" which will have spoilers.

I am not a literary critic, nor a book editor. I am not an art critic, or expert. But sometimes, when I look at a painting; when I read a book (or in this case a series of books), I am drawn into, and made breathless, and in awe by what I am seeing or reading. And it's hard for me to express, sometimes in words why. It just speaks to me - literally speak This review is for the entire 8 book series. There will be no spoilers. I am also going to add a review under "Gemini" which will have spoilers.

I am not a literary critic, nor a book editor. I am not an art critic, or expert. But sometimes, when I look at a painting; when I read a book (or in this case a series of books), I am drawn into, and made breathless, and in awe by what I am seeing or reading. And it's hard for me to express, sometimes in words why. It just speaks to me - literally speaks to my soul. Touches me to the very depths of who I am. Dorothy Dunnett's books are like that for me. They are masterpieces; they are literary art. These books are not easy reads. None of her historical books are - so be warned. These books force you to use your brain. They demand that you respect them - that you SET ASIDE TIME to read them. But here's the thing - if you do respect them, and set aside time to read them, you will be well rewarded. That I promise. For the thing about Dunnett is this: she is a master of historical fiction, (my opinion - the best author of historical fiction of the 20th century - hands down), she is the master of character building, and the psychology of characters - both major and minor, and she is the master at bringing to life the time period in which she sets her stories.

These books are about the life of a man. Claus, Nicolo, Nicholas. It begins when he is in his late teens, and goes through his forties. It's about coming from nothing, and making something of ones self. About the choices that are made. About the financial/business successes, the friends, the loves, the loses that shape and form a person. Redemption. A classic story, but told in Dunnett's impeccable style. With humor, and grace, and pain, and always about the main character growing, and learning, and becoming who he is meant to be. It is set in late Medieval Europe, and Africa, and the Middle East. (I did warn you that you'd learn something about the historical time that she is writing about).

And I want to add something else. PLEASE, if you think you'd like to read these books - please start with book one. These books are a series of books, where each one builds on the last, both for the story line, and for the character building. Really, it's not the sort of series where you can drop into the middle and get the full sense of the richness of the story. You'll lose the depth of it, the beauty of it. (And I'm tired of reading 1 star reviews where people say they can't understand why people are so in love with Dunnett, when they didn't start with the first book, but the 4th or 5th or 8th even, and wonder why they don't enjoy the story). Sorry, I had to vent a little.

So I really do hope you take a chance and read this series of 8 books. And I hope you love them. And I hope you end up loving Dorothy Dunnett as much as I do. And if you haven't read her earlier series of 6 books, "The Lymond Chronicles", I hope you read those as well. (They tie into these books).
Enjoy!!!!

...more

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Jan 09, 2008 Lori rated it it was amazing

Welcome to the world of Dorothy Dunnett! I can't remember how I learned about this book, but I started with this series. I started, and didn't stop reading until I read all day and night for months finishing this series, delved right into The Lymond Chronicles, immediately reread this, followed by a second read of Lymond. Ahhhh. Dunnett is an intellectual writer - these books are not to skim thru, they are dense with information about characters, plot and history. The first read through don't ex ...more

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Nov 25, 2012 Dawn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, authors-women, favorites, read-2013

Why I have never read a Dunnett book before is beyond me. Set in one of my favorite eras, with stellar writing and political intrigue, it's really my perfect book. And hopefully series.

The story is set amoung the cloth merchants, bankers and mercenaries of 15th century Bruges. With characters from very poor to very rich, enemies and friends are forged and fortunes are there to be made.

It took me a few chapters to understand what was going on and who the main characters were, the story and writi ...more

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Dec 18, 2018 Anna rated it it was amazing

A late contender for favourite read of the year. Nobody does historical fiction like Dunnett, the sheer scope and how she exposes the intricacies of both daily life and political and mercantile intrigue is extraordinary and so fun to read and then she is also building incredibly taut emotional denouements as well. I adore marriage of convenience plots (as does Dunnett clearly) and this one doesn't disappoint. There is an element of comparing Lymond and Claes and they certainly overlap but then i ...more

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Nov 03, 2012 Jean Gobel rated it it was amazing

Shelves: dunnett, ebook, historical-fiction

Thoroughly enjoy this book despite a rather slow beginning. Perhaps slow only because I just finished the last of the Lymond Chronicles, and I'm "still living in the world of the last book" which was not the least bit slow! Here we find our hero, Claes, appears to be a clumsy, slow-witted dyer's apprentice who is constantly in trouble, not always of his own making. He has been with the Widow de Charetty's family since he was 10, as servant to her son, Felix. We learn Claes is actually exceptiona ...more

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Jun 12, 2007 Diane rated it it was amazing

This is the second series written by Dorothy Dunnett, and is placed in Antwerp in the 16th century. Although it is about many things, the main focus is on the rise of the textile industry and trade and much of the book involves the search for alum, which was used to bind color. There are six books and they take place all over, ranging from Antwerp to Morocco, Egypt, Cyprus and more. As in the Lymond Chronicles, the books are meticulously researched, but also have a wonderful story woven througho ...more

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Aug 12, 2020 oshizu rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 4-2020-favorites, 4-2020-read-in, fiction-historical, region-europe-west

5 shiny stars. My fascination with the early modern period in Japan has since spread to other societies during their corresponding historical phase. Book 1 of The House of Niccolo series starts out in 1460, Bruges. Against the backdrop of civil unrest in England, France, and Constantinople, the nobility, merchants, and bureaucracy of Bruges (as well as their families and servants) engage in trade, craft, political conniving, festivals, wars, jousting, courtship, and so much more.
The Renaissance- ...more

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Feb 20, 2010 Lorie Ahlander Maenza rated it it was amazing

Niccolo Rising

Going on my second read of "The House of Niccolo". I am enjoying the story even more this time around. I read the Lymond Chronicals twice before I picked up this series. Thinking nothing could be better than the story of Lymond, I was amazed how the "House of Niccolo" series is just as surprising with characters that are insanely intelligent, funny and secretive.

When we meet Niccolo his name is Claes (short for Nicholas), an apprentice dyer. From the very beginning like a chess ga ...more

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Jun 27, 2007 Siria rated it liked it

Shelves: british-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century

Much slower to start than the Lymond Chronicles, I think; and unlike the end of the first Lymond book, where at least I had something of a grasp of all the various machinations by the time the book ended, I finished The House of Niccolo still thinking "Wait... but... he did that? Really? And... who?" Which is not to say that Dunnett didn't lay out her plot well, but that she did so in a manner so labyrinthine and Byzantine that I think it surpassed the Lymond Chronicles at points.

Though to be h ...more

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Jun 21, 2013 Kiwi Begs2Differ ✎ rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, abandoned-not-for-me

Alas DNF after about third of the book, a number of elements led me to put it aside.
To me, the humour in the first chapters was overdone to the point of resembling a farce. I found myself confused by the myriad of characters and frustrated in trying to keep them straight in my mind. I had to pause several times and go back to check where I encountered that character and how it was related to the other main characters in the story (there is a scary long character list at the beginning of the boo ...more

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May 10, 2008 Yati rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2009, 2019

2019 reread:
I kept an eye on certain characters, knowing what I now know from the first time I read this series, but ... I think I might have forgotten most of the plot. Even things I knew were going to happen surprised me.

Also it took me almost ten months to finish rereading this. (I've been reading other things too, but huh. That really took forever.)

2009:
What I learned from this book: I don't know how to pronounce "Bruges". And almost, oh, all the characters' names.

This was nothing like the ...more

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Sep 15, 2008 Brittany rated it really liked it

Shelves: historicalfiction

I read this for the first time in September of 2008. Then I liked it, though I knew I should like it more than I did. So I'm rereading it. And this time, I'm not going to be angry at Niccolo for not being Lymond or at pretty much all of the women for not being Philippa. I'm going to enjoy the story for itself.

You ought not be allowed to plow into these directly after reading the Lymond Chronicles.

Apparently, I forgot quite a lot of this book. The first time I read it, I remember being disgruntle ...more

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Sep 18, 2014 Juliana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: family-drama, fiction, humor, historical-fiction, hit-the-road, bruges, medici, favorites

Three young men floating down a canal inside a bathtub being delivered to a Duke in Bruges. Action and hilarity ensue but this chapter is key--don't read it lightly. I read it twice in a row. The chapter has layers and kicks off the events not only in this book but in the entire series. This is my second time through this series--it was a delight the first time when I had the pleasure of reading it through with several co-workers--we had a lot of fun at lunchtime discussing the antics of Nichola ...more

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Dorothy Dunnett fans: Niccolo Rising Read Along NO SPOILERS	16	64	Sep 03, 2016 06:23PM
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About Dorothy Dunnett

Dorothy Dunnett

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Dorothy Dunnett OBE was a Scottish historical novelist. She is best known for her six-part series about Francis Crawford of Lymond, The Lymond Chronicles, which she followed with the eight-part prequel The House of Niccolò. She also wrote a novel about the real Macbeth called King Hereafter and a series of mystery novels centered on Johnson Johnson, a portrait painter/spy.

Her New York times obitua ...more

Other books in the series

The House of Niccolò (8 books)

Books by Dorothy Dunnett

The Game of Kings (The Lymond Chronicles, #1)

Queens' Play (The Lymond Chronicles, #2)

Pawn in Frankincense (The Lymond Chronicles, #4)

The Disorderly Knights (The Lymond Chronicles, #3)

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Quotes from Niccolò Rising

“And across the water, you would swear you could sniff it all; the cinnamon and the cloves, the frankincense and the honey and the licorice, the nutmeg and citrons, the myrrh and the rosewater from Persia in keg upon keg. You would think you could glimpse, heaped and glimmering, the sapphires and the emeralds and the gauzes woven with gold, the ostrich feathers and the elephant tusks, the gums and the ginger and the coral buttons mynheer Goswin the clerk of the Hanse might be wearing on his jacket next week. . . . The Flanders galleys put into harbor every night in their highly paid voyage from Venice, fanned down the Adriatic by the thick summer airs, drifting into Corfu and Otranto, nosing into and out of Sicily and round the heel of Italy as far as Naples; blowing handsomely across the western gulf to Majorca, and then to the north African coast, and up and round Spain and Portugal, dropping off the small, lucrative loads which were not needed for Bruges; taking on board a little olive oil, some candied orange peel, some scented leather, a trifle of plate and a parrot, some sugar loaves.” — 5 likes

“Защото ако синът не харесва баща си - както и да е. Това е естествената смяна на поколенията. Но когато един мъж се осмелява да мрази сина си - това е неестествено.” — 1 likes

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