The Faces of Womankind

The novel recounts a tale of passion, treachery, grief and redeeming love set against the background of the glamorous but deadly world of the Florentine aristocracy. It traces the path of Lord James Markham from the discovery of his wife’s depraved infidelities to his tragic affair with a young student while dealing with fraud at the bank and his brother-in-law Paolo’s suicide in compromising circumstances. Urged on by his uncle, Cardinal Palmieri, he leaves for Buenos Aires is search of a former mistress, Carolina.

The second half of the novel centers on Carolina, a peronista hotel receptionist whom James had bedded many years earlier. Still in love with him, despite the Malvinas, she agrees to marry him and reluctantly enters into the world of the nobility with all its licentiousness, greed and murder. She struggles to reconcile her roots with her new aristocratic lifestyle. Blessed with a lively intelligence and sturdy common sense, she proves Paolo’s suicide to be murder. Arising from obscurity, she emerges as the heroine of this intensely erotic and literary novel.

A Canadian of British origin, Philip Raworth is an Emeritus Professor of Law, the editor of a number of international legal publications, and the author of several books on international commercial law as well as two novels. A polyglot who speaks a number of European languages, he has taught at universities in England, Austria, Canada, Mexico and Chile. He also worked for a time as a lawyer in Brussels. However, his main claim to fame is as a bon vivant who has a taste for good food and fine wines.He quit the university scene at the turn of the century and went to live in Provence, where he spent many happy years with his beautiful French wife among the vineyards and glorious colors of Provence and the irresistible charm of the Mediterranean. During this time, he continued his work as an international commercial lawyer and started his new career as a novelist.In 2014, his wife was diagnosed with an incurable condition, and the couple returned to Canada to be near their children. Marie-Gabrielle died on December 2, 2021, her beauty untainted by the ravages of her illness.