"These accumulating family resentments I myself only noticed later; I was eight, everything seemed a game, the battle between us boys and grownups was the same as in all families, and I did not realize that my brother's stubbornness hid something much deeper," Chapter 1, p. 5.

"The turbulence of the times makes some people feel the need to bestir themselves, but in the opposite direction, backwards rather than forwards; so, with things boiling up all around him, our father had set his heart on regaining the lapsed title of Duke of Ombrossa," Chapter 1, p. 5.

"The rest of the day our mother spent in her apartments, doing lace and embroidery and petit point; for in truth it was only in these traditional womanly occupations that the Generalessa could vent her warrior's urge," Chapter 1, p. 6.

"But that restless creature, our sister Battista, used to spend the nights wandering around the house...