Polissena del Porcello is a 1993 Italian children's book by Bianca Pitzorno.
Polissena is a beautiful and well-educated 11-year-old girl who lives a happy life with her wealthy and loving family. When she finds out the shocking truth, that Mr. and Mrs. Gentileschi are not her real parents, Polissena is so desperate that she runs away, becoming more and more determined to discover the origins of her birth and her biological parents.
Polissena starts a long Road Trip Plot, always accompanied by Street Smart little acrobat Lucrezia and her circus animals, including a pig which is particularly close to Polissena. During the trip, she will interact with many different people, including princesses, hermits, and evil pirates, and they all have something interesting to reveal about Polissena's backstory.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents:
- Giraldi, Lucrezia's adoptive grandfather and the only adult figure in her life, was extremely abusive to her, always drinking and beating her up. Thankfully for Lucrezia, he is a Posthumous Character, and she prefers to live alone with her animals.
- For a while, Polissena assumes the fisherman is her real father. Living with his family, she has to deal with the abuse of the fisherman's evil (and violent) wife, until it is revealed to be a misunderstanding and she is not actually related to them. The woman is also equally abusive and violent to her real children.
- Amplified Animal Aptitude: Lucrezia's animals obviously can't talk, but other than that, they have human-level intelligence because "they are trained".
- The Atoner: Arrigo Filippucci, who has spent ten years as a hermit to make up for his evil act of stealing Ginevra's newborn daughter and abandoning her in the woods.
- Beauty Equals Goodness:
- Princess Isabella is as beautiful as she's caring. While she's unable to enjoy anything in life, her depression doesn't stop her to show compassion for other people.
- Polissena's adoptive mother Ginevra is the World's Most Beautiful Woman, and a very kidnhearted mother as well.
- While Polissena is a bit of a Spoiled Brat, she's ultimately a good person. The fisherman's wife is very cruel and vain, and also jealous because she lacks Polissena's natural beauty.
- Big Friendly Dog: Lucrezia's Saint Bernard dog Ramiro is usually friendly. In the Civetta Verde chapter, there's also a dog named Ulisse that, despite being old and tired, is affectionate to Polissena.
- Cool Big Sis: Polissena is adored by both her younger sisters Ippolita and Petronilla.
- Deus ex Machina: To an exaggerated extent. It seems like every person Polissena and Lucrezia meet (even accidentally) was personally involved in Polissena's backstory, and everyone is right there to give them detailed informations about what happened ten years ago.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The Regent of Mirenai's kingdom loves Isabella, because she's actually his daughter, not his niece as everyone believes, and he's the one who switched her at birth with the real princess in the first place. This doesn't stop him from being verbally and emotionally abusive to her. He's cruel to his citizens too.
- Friend to All Living Things: Lucrezia has a special bond with all her circus animals, and is very protective of them.
- Gene Hunting: While Polissena loves her family, she abandons them to find her real parents when she learns the truth. She firmly believes that a child must live only with her biological parents.
- Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Polissena was raised to be a Proper Lady and she likes to think of herself as a princess, but she's also very good at climbing everywhere, an odd hobby that wasn't appreciated by her family. This turns out to be Chekhov's Skill a few times.
- Hypercompetent Sidekick: Lucrezia, to Polissena. Since Lucrezia is a Circus Brat, she learned how to survive on the streets by experience and always knows the right thing to do.
- Irony: Polissena has always wanted to be a princess and take Isabella's place, while Lucrezia hates royalty and feels sorry for Isabella, the princess of Mirenai. At the end, it turns out the real princess of Mirenai is Lucrezia.
- Karma Houdini: The fisherman's wife is one of the most evil characters, but gets no punishment. All the other evil characters are either already dead (Giraldi, Crudelinfame) or get their comeuppance in the last chapter (Mrs. Aspra, the Regent).
- Little Miss Badass: Lucrezia is an extremely smart and resourceful acrobat who can take care of herself and raise several circus animals (including a bear) and has basically Seen It All due to living on the streets... she's only nine years old. Polissena is much more sheltered, but she also has her moments due to her climbing skills.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: The fisherman has been married twice and has at least nine children, and they all live in terrible conditions too.
- Meaningful Name:
- The owner of the Civetta Verde Inn is named Mrs. Aspra, with "aspra" meaning sour or harsh. She's not a nice person.
- The surname of Polissena's adoptive family is Gentileschi. "Gentile" means "kind", and they all are very kind people.
- Princess Isabella is described as an extremely beautiful girl. "Bella" is Italian for "beautiful".
- The pirate named Crudelinfame. "Crudele" means cruel, and "infame" means vile and shameful. He lives up to the name.
- Ms. Imagination: Ever since she was a child, Polissena likes to daydream about being a princess and make up fairytale fantasies about her backstory.
- Perpetual Frowner: Princess Isabella, because she lives an oppressive life at the Royal Palace and struggles to follow all the rules her princess status asks her to. She finally becomes able to smile again thanks to the friendship of Lucrezia and Polissena (mainly Lucrezia, since Polissena can't stand her).
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Polissena is the brash and impulsive Red Oni, Lucrezia is the wise and rational Blue Oni.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Serafina, the Alpha Bitch who cruelly reveals to Polissena that she was adopted in the first chapter. This kicks off the plot, but Serafina is rarely mentioned in the rest of the book, and the character is never described, we only know that she's 12, hates Polissena, and is jealous of her.
- Stepford Smiler: The waitresses of the Civetta Verde Inn are Perpetual Smilers when they work, because they are supposed to be always cheerful around customers. Then Lucrezia finds out that they actually hate their job and Mrs. Aspra treats them like slaves.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: After cutting her hair, Polissena disguises herself as a boy during the trip (Lucrezia briefly does it too at Mirenai). The disguise fools nearly everyone, only one person in the entire book recognizes her as female and asks her why she is wearing boyish clothes.
- Switched at Birth: Polissena and Isabella, until it's revealed that Polissena has already been switched with another baby before who turns out to be Lucrezia.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Girly Girl Polissena grew up as spoiled rich girl, and is obsessed with royalty and being a princess (she searches for her biological parents, only in the hope they are Blue Blood), while Tomboy Lucrezia is an adventurous Circus Brat who despises royalty. Ironically, Polissena is the one who travels disguised as a boy.
- Tomboy Princess: After Lucrezia is revealed to be the princess of Mirenai, she still prefers Walking the Earth with her circus animals, because she hates the idea of living at court. The "fake princess" Isabella, who is actually Lucrezia's cousin, also follows Lucrezia to escape the life at the Royal Palace. Justified in Isabella's case due to the emotional abuse she suffered at court.
- Wicked Stepmother: The fisherman's second wife is this to Bernardo and the other children the fisherman had from his first wife (for a while Polissena believes to be one of them), but she's just as abusive to her own chidlren.
