The Amalfi Curse

The Amalfi Curse’s dual timelines allow Penner to examine the intergenerational struggle for women’s independence, highlighting ways in which women’s experiences compare and differ over the centuries. For example, as a woman living in the present day, Haven has access to educational and professional opportunities that Mari and other 19th-century women lacked. However, misogyny still infringes on her agency, as demonstrated when Gage and Conrad make crucial decisions about her career without including her in the conversation, decisions they expressly connect to her gender, asserting they: “can’t pay to put a group of women in the water, Haven. Should something happen, think how that would look” (87). Through parallels in Mari and Haven’s stories, the author addresses common obstacles to women’s independence as well as forms of resistance and resilience that have empowered women for generations.

In both the past and the present, one of the most formidable threats to women’s freedom is men’s destructive greed. Penner emphasizes this point by making the avaricious Corso’s letter to Matteo the prologue as well as the inciting incident that sets the plot into motion. Corso bargains with Matteo, saying: “For a price, I am willing to reveal what I know—to tell you what I have learned, what I have seen.