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Battista Piovasco di Rondò
Biagio, Cosimo, and Battista’s mother, and Baron Arminio’s wife. As a girl, the Generalessa accompanied her father, a general, on his campaigns in the War of Austrian Succession, which earned her the nickname Generalessa (her real name, which no one in the novel uses, is Konradine Von Kurtewitz). Because of her upbringing, she knows all about battle tactics, ballistics, and navigation. Though Biagio describes her as a good parent, she doesn’t have much of a sense of humor and her only focus is on somehow getting her sons to join the military. The Generalessa spends her days either making lace or embroidering; all of her work is military themed. Her focus on the military means that she has “military manners” and is exacting, so Baron Arminio’s pointless scheming is frustrating for her. Though she’s initially concerned when Cosimo goes into the trees, she’s the first to accept that he’s not going to come down and makes sure he has what he needs to stay warm and dry. She signals to him with military flags, something that hurts Biagio—she never played with them with the flags, or taught the boys how to signal with them, until Cosimo disappeared. It’s implied that Cosimo and the Generalessa have a close relationship until her death, as Cosimo keeps a vigil at her window all the time in her final days.
The Generalessa Quotes in The Baron in the Trees
The The Baron in the Trees quotes below are all either spoken by The Generalessa or refer to The Generalessa. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
Now, instead, as we dined with the family, childhood’s sad chapter of daily grievances took shape. Our father and our mother were always right in front of us; we had to use knives and forks for the chicken, and sit up straight, and keep elbows off the table—endless!—and then there was our odious sister Battista. A succession of scoldings, spiteful acts, punishments, obstinacies began, until the day Cosimo refused the snails and decided to separate his lot from ours.
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Chapter 5
Quotes
She was there waving one of her flags and looking through the telescope when suddenly her whole face brightened and she laughed. We understood that Cosimo had answered her. [...] Certainly from then on our mother changed; her earlier apprehension disappeared, and [...] she finally accepted Cosimo’s strangeness before the rest of us, as if she was satisfied now by the greetings that from then on he sent her every so often, unpredictably—by that exchange of silent messages.
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The Generalessa Quotes in The Baron in the Trees
The The Baron in the Trees quotes below are all either spoken by The Generalessa or refer to The Generalessa. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
Now, instead, as we dined with the family, childhood’s sad chapter of daily grievances took shape. Our father and our mother were always right in front of us; we had to use knives and forks for the chicken, and sit up straight, and keep elbows off the table—endless!—and then there was our odious sister Battista. A succession of scoldings, spiteful acts, punishments, obstinacies began, until the day Cosimo refused the snails and decided to separate his lot from ours.
Related Characters:
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 5
Quotes
She was there waving one of her flags and looking through the telescope when suddenly her whole face brightened and she laughed. We understood that Cosimo had answered her. [...] Certainly from then on our mother changed; her earlier apprehension disappeared, and [...] she finally accepted Cosimo’s strangeness before the rest of us, as if she was satisfied now by the greetings that from then on he sent her every so often, unpredictably—by that exchange of silent messages.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
