The Fool Errant: Being the Memoirs of Francis-Anthony Strelley, Esq., Citizen of Lucca

Francis-Anthony Strelley arrives in Padua with ambitions of studying civil law and making his name in Renaissance Italy, but the young Englishman finds himself entangled in something far more dangerous than jurisprudence: the household of his tutor, Dr. Porfirio Lanfranchi, and the tutor's beautiful wife Aurelia. What begins as intellectual mentorship curdles into something more perilous as the call of desire proves stronger than scholarly discipline. Hewlett paints a vivid picture of a young man undone by his own passions, his foolish errantry through the cobblestone streets of Italy leading him toward choices that will reshape his entire life. The novel is at once a sensual romance, a portrait of foreignness and longing, and a cautionary tale about the gap between what youth imagines love to be and what it actually costs.