"No one had seen her naked until her death." Prologue, pg. ix

"Looking back now, I see it more as an act of pride than kindness that my father brought the young painter back with him from the North that spring." Part 1: Chapter 1, pg. 5

"We would never sort it out, she and I. I had almost died at birth. She had almost died giving birth to me." Part 1: Chapter 3, pg. 25

"But as he puts down the board and I look at the drawing, I realize he has already taken everything he needs." Part 1: Chapter 5, pg. 46

"With Charles and his army on the Tuscan border and panic sniffing around the city gates, Florence took herself to Church." Part 1: Chapter 11, pg. 86

"Not so far to be lost, but far enough so that when my own daughters came to me with fantasies of freedom I could tell them that there was...