Paradise of Cities: Venice In the 19th Century [Hardcover]

John Julius Norwich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2003

The greatest living chronicler of Venetian history brings to life the city’s magical charm in a beautifully illustrated and captivating book.

John Julius Norwich, the author of the acclaimed A History of Venice, traces the transformation of Venice from a proud independent state into a dazzling dreamscape that attracted artists, writers, and composers from around the world. In a strikingly effective departure from straight narrative history, he tells the story of Venice through the experiences and reactions of such famous nineteenth-century visitors as Napoleon Bonaparte, Lord Byron, John Ruskin, Henry James, Richard Wagner, James Whistler, and Robert Browning.

Written with brio and humor, the profiles capture the incomparable charms of Venice—and the quirks of these historic figures as they discover (or fail to discover) them. Napoleon, having achieved the conquest that had thwarted other forces for a thousand years, was totally indifferent to the glories of his prize. The almost comically lascivious Byron seduced nearly every woman in Venice until he had the misfortune of falling in love with one of them, and the prim Ruskin obsessively sketched every architectural detail for his seminal book, The Stones of Venice, even as his comely wife grew weary of his celibacy. Wagner worked on Tristan und Isolde in Venice, and Whistler painted his greatest masterpieces there.

Like Peter Ackroyd’s much-praised London, Paradise of Cities is at once a fascinating history, a matchless travel guide, and a wonderful gift book. Filled with vintage photographs and full-color reproductions of period paintings, it conveys both the misfortune of Venice’s decline and the magnificence of its eternal beauty. It is as magical, as colorful, and as irresistible as its subject.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

By the end of the 19th century, Venice-conquered by Napoleon, handed over to the Austrians, plundered by the departing French troops, ruled by the Hapsburgs, and plundered again by the Austrians when they left in the 1860s-had lost much of its former glory. Nevertheless, Venice continued to fascinate travelers, and in this gracefully written book, Norwich (A History of Venice) attempts to portray the city through the eyes of some of its famous visitors of the period. Except for passages drawn from the writings of these travelers, this approach is not entirely successful, particularly in the chapter on Lord Byron, which is mainly concerned with the poet's love affairs. Similarly, the section on Robert Browning has more to do with his enthusiasm for his son's restoration of one of the palaces on the Grand Canal than with Browning's impressions of the city. On the other hand, in the chapter on John Ruskin, who recorded the decaying city in drawings, watercolors and writings, readers get some telling descriptions, and a sense of Venetian atmosphere and everyday life comes across in Norwich's accounts of the paintings of James McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent. Perhaps the most compelling chapter is the one on the eccentric, penniless and misanthropic British novelist Frederick Rolfe (Baron Corvo), who, because he alienated everyone who tried to help him, was homeless during much of the time he lived in Venice. For the most part, the book, though intriguing, reveals more about the lives and personalities of the visitors than about Venice itself. Illus. not seen by PW.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The prolific Norwich is the author of the distinguished two-volume History of Venice (1982). In the introduction to his new book, he rightly poses the question, Why write another book on the subject? The answer: to bring the tale of Venice forward from where he left it--upon the fall of the 1,000-year-old Venetian Republic at the hands of Napoleon. So, that leads Norwich to pose another question for himself: "Venice in the nineteenth century was a poor, sad shadow of what she had been in the eighteenth; how, then, could the story of that century best be told?" His perfect solution is to see Venice through the eyes of famous visitors who spent time there in the nineteenth century, beginning with the history-altering Napoleon himself ("The city's enduring beauty seems to have been lost on him"). Other of these nineteenth-century visitor/observer/temporary residents include art critic John Ruskin (for whom Venice was "the paradise of cities"), writer Henry James ("The city . . . might be said to have completed his cultural education"), and painter John Singer Sargent (who "became essentially a Venetian"). Rendered in a stylish, resonant, indelible prose quite befitting the subject, this book becomes, despite what we learn about Napoleon's marked aversion, an ode to a very splendid and unique city; for, as Norwich posits, "there are surely worse fates than to die, if die we must, in a glorious Venetian palazzo, looking out onto the Grand Canal." Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; First Edition Stated edition (October 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385509049
• ISBN-13: 978-0385509046
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,753,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars LIfestyles of the Rich and Famous, July 27, 2004

By 

disheveledprofessor "disheveledprofessor" (the home of the Blue Angels) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Paradise of Cities: Venice In the 19th Century (Hardcover)

My first exposure to the writing of John Julius Norwich was through his excellent series on Byzantium. ["A Short History of Byzantium"; "Byzantium: The Early Centuries"; "Byzantium: The Apogee"; "Byzantium: The Decline and Fall"]. He is an excellent writer, producing elegant prose combined with a love for his subject and an enticing sense of humor. Because of my enjoyment of this series, I picked up this book without hesitation.

Venice has a proud history: politically, as an independent city-state; economically, the wealthy center of trade routes; artistically, possessing architectural treasures that still lure tourists. All this in addition to a breathtaking natural beauty.

By the time covered by this book, however, the city had lost its political independence and power [being conquered by Napoleon at the beginning of the 1800s, and then being passed on to Austria], as well as its economic importance [as new trade routes were developed; as the US developed as an economic power, causing trade with the west to eclipse trade with the east].

Venice continued, however, to attract wealthy and prominent citizens from England the America. Was it the natural beauty? The cultural offerings? A sense of nostalgia? "Paradise of Cities" relates snippets of the lives of the "rich and famous" who visited, often for extended periods, Venice during the 19th century. Norwich includes biographical sketches of Napoleon, Lord Byron, Wagner, Henry James, Robert Browing, James Whistler, and John Singer Sargent, among others, emphasizing their time in and love of Venice. Unfortunately, while there are many interesting tidbits about their lives in Venice, there is little insight as to what it was about Venice which enchanted them. It would have been fascinating to know what they were running from, or what they were searching for.

I expected more of a traditional history than it is. Aside from a short chapter on the ill-fated revolution of 1848 [very interesting!], the author provides little discussion on the evolution of the city or its people during this century. Nearly all the encounters and relationships reported on are with other foreign visitors - strange, from an author who claims an overwhelming love of the city. I wonder, too, on how he selected his cast of characters... Missing was Mark Twain, who visited the city in 1867 and again in 1878. His pithy description of Italy and the Italians in "Innocents Abroad", first published in 1869, was so resented in Italy that the book was not published there until 1960! [not an unusual reaction - there is a small town in Germany which, until at least the late 1970s, wouldn't even list Twain in its card catalog].

To recap: I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5, due to the lack of history of the city. But it is enjoyable reading, if somewhat episodic.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating History of a Fascinating City, January 5, 2005

By 

Charlus "charlus" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paradise of Cities: Venice in the Nineteenth Century (Paperback)

Venice is one of the most romantic cities in the world and John Julius Norwich knows the city and its history better than almost anyone (having written a two volume history and edited an anthology about the city). Now he brings his history up through the 19th Century as seen through the eyes of some of its most famous residents (and some famous in their time but now forgotten). He writes in an endlessly readable prose with wit, fascinating anecdotes and an enthusiasm that is infectious. A treat for the armchair cultural historian.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What's a historian's job?, December 7, 2005

By 

D. P. Birkett (Suffern, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Paradise of Cities : Venice In the 19th Century (Hardcover)

A fascinating collection of anecdotes and potted biographies about famous people who visited Venice in the nineteenth century. In spite of its subtitle it's not really a history, although one of the biographical sketches is of Daniele Manin, who briefly restored the Venetian Republic.
The history of Venice from, say, 1770 to 1870 raises some interesting questions of the kind historians are supposed to help us to answer. Why do nationalisms arise? Why do they sometimes take the form of wanting to unify and sometimes the form of trying to separate? Why did resurgent Venetian patriotism take the form of wanting to join Italy/Why are independence movements sometimes bloody and passionate and sometimes non-violent and mild?
Why exactly did the Congress of Vienna "give" Venice to Austria? What was the relationship between the Venetian empire (still extensive in 1797) and the city itself? Did Ionian islanders and Dalmatians welcome their change of rulers? Norwich doesn't try to answer these questions. Perhaps he doesn't consider it his job. He says in the introduction that he considers a "straightforward recital of political events" would have been boring.
Some of the accounts are of well-known figures, such as Byron and Ruskin, whose pre- and post-Venetian lives are more adequately dealt with by other others.The main interest of Rolfe lies in the fact that he is the subject of AJA Symons's "Quest for Corvo." Some of the characters dealt with at length seem nonentities distinguished only by their inherited wealth. Amongst the entertaining anecdotes I missed any account of the mystery of George Eliot's honeymoon. When was Proust in Venice?