Roman
Ivory
synopsis
Roman Ivory is a story of murder, love and the power of art set in nineteenth century Europe. Robert, the son of a British viscount, seeks the truth about his late father’s relationship with Jacopo, a Roman bardassa who caters to affluent gentlemen. Traveling from London to Paris and Rome, Robert uncovers a homosexual demimonde and falls under the spell of Fabrizio Croce, a mysterious Parisian art dealer. What Robert learns could destroy Fabrizio's life. Bound to a bench in a cellar beneath Fabrizio's gallery, will he ever be allowed to leave?
“Historically and culturally revelatory and poignantly emotional, but also intensely sexually explicit and disturbing.” - Kirkus Review
Author
Biography
Robert Bruegmann is an historian and critic of the built environment. He received his PhD in art history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976 and since 1979 has been on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago where he is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Art History, Architecture and Urban Planning. He has also taught at the Philadelphia College of Art, MIT, and Columbia University. Among his books are Holabird & Roche and Holabird & Root, An Illustrated Catalogue of Work, 1991; The Architects and the City: Holabird & Roche of Chicago 1880-1918, 1998; Sprawl: A Compact History, 2005; The Architecture of Harry Weese, 2010, Roman Ivory, A Novel, 2024, and, as editor, Modernism at Mid-Century, The Architecture of the United States Airforce Academy, 1995; Art Deco Chicago: Designing Modern America, 2018; Roman Ivory: A Novel, 2024; and Citizen Architects: Ben and Cynthia Weese, forthcoming 2024. His main areas of research are in the history of architecture, urban planning, landscape and historic preservation.
