A Traveller's Companion to Venice

By John Julius Norwich

$ 16.95

“Another excellent volume in the Traveller’s Companion series.” — The Times (London)

Out of stock

About this book

Reactions to Venice have been, throughout the ages, astonishingly different. Henry James wrote passionately: "You desire to embrace it, to caress it, to possess it..." whereas Mark Twain found St. Mark's "so ugly...Propped on its long row of thick-legged columns, its back knobbed with domes, it seem like a vast, warty bug taking a medieval walk."

In this dazzling anthology, James and Twain along with the writings of Byron, Goethe, Wagner, Casanova, Jan Morris, Robert Browning, and Horace Walpole, among many others, are all featured. Ranging from the days of the sixth century, when the early lagoon-dwellers lived "like sea-birds, in huts built on heaps of osiers" to the exquisite city of eighteenth-century revelers and nineteenth-century art lovers- the city's many different guises are revealed as its inhabitants and visitors saw them.

This favorite volume from the Traveller's Companion series also contains maps, engravings, and notes on history, art and architecture, and everyday city life. Highly entertaining and informative.

Brand: John Julius Norwich

About the author

John Julius Norwich has known and loved Venice since he first visited it with his parents at the age of 16. He is the author of A History of Venice, a work first published in two volumes but now available in one, which has become the standard history of the Venetian Republic. He lectures regularly on the art and architecture of Venice and the problems of its preservation.

Reviews

“Another excellent volume in the Traveller’s Companion series.” — The Times (London)

“A dazzling anthology of writings about the Queen of Cities, from those who have travelled far to see her. Byron, Ruskin, Browning, Jan Morris and many more give some explanation of why Venice is a city without parallel.” — Oxford Times

“A book as entrancing as the place it describes.” — Catholic Herald

“Will enrich anyone’s experience of the city.” — The Times (London)

“A brilliant historical anthology… which I read from cover to cover, relishing the author’s witty selection of writings.” — The Spectator (London)