Seeing Venice: An Eye in Love : An Inner Travelogue With 94 Drawings (Codhill Press) [Paperback]

Frederick Franck (Author)

Book Description

Series: Codhill Press | Publication Date: July 1, 2002

Take a luminous journey deep into the heart of hidden Venice, with Frederick Franck as your guide. His quietly evocative drawings and descriptions bring to vivid life the city of islands, La Serenissima, the Queen of the Sea, “that most human of cities,” Venice.

Franck explores the exquisite nooks and crannies and unique people and places of Venice, providing an enlivening glimpse into a city he sees as a microcosm of creation, “an immense and living indoor and out­door studio.”

“Venice is so much more than canals, bridges, gondolas. It is an unbroken sequence of ever-changing moods; festive, frivolous, elegiac and melancholy, forever foreign yet totally intimate.” — from Seeing Venice

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With line drawings and whimsical text, artist and author Franck (The Zen of Seeing) records the spirit of Venice beyond the canals, bridges and gondolas that preoccupy the camcorder crowd. For him, the city is an "immense and living indoor and outdoor studio"; wandering the streets or sitting in bars and public squares, he takes note of things others might miss the complexities of the Venetians' facial expressions, the "timeless choreography of lovers," the subtle colors of rain-washed houses. His Venice is a giant stage set on which small dramas abound nuns with black briefcases stand arguing in the rain; pedestrians perform "umbrella ballets" as they squeeze past each other on rainy streets; the footprints of an animal as large as a lion mark the snow in the campo on Christmas morning; the parents of a spastic child in a harlequin costume lift her out of her wheelchair during Carnevale; a pigeon dies silently next to the wall of the Basilica. The deft and witty illustrations show streetscapes, cafe patrons, a string quartet, portly old men reading their newspapers at lunch and other sights both familiar and fresh. Franck's "inner travelogue" sometimes takes him abruptly back to his childhood in Holland, which can be confusing, but for the most part his tour is a charmer.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

A true eclectic — in touch with the perennial ... and with all his drawings, his beautiful, compassionate drawings! -- Robert Aitken Roshi, author of Taking the Path of Zen

Frederick Frank is one of a rare and precious breed — pure in word and image. --Jacob Needleman, author of Money and the Meaning of Life

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Product Details

• Paperback: 127 pages
• Publisher: Codhill Press (July 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930337043
• ISBN-13: 978-1930337046
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,531,205 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The emotions, vitality, and ambiance of Venice, September 14, 2002

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Seeing Venice: An Eye in Love : An Inner Travelogue With 94 Drawings (Codhill Press) (Paperback)

At the age of 93 years (making him one of the oldest living active authors of our time) Frederick Franck's intimate, closely observed drawings and descriptions of the everyday citizens, as well as the private and public places of Venice, are superbly showcased in Seeing Venice: An Eye In Love. An engaging travelogue, illustrated with 94 unique, black-and-white drawings and sketches, this compendium of memorable and vivid impressions of the city's beauty and its people's daily lives fill comprise an enchanting journey for the reader -- and one of the best ways to experience the emotions, vitality, and ambiance of Venice short of actually being there in person!

5.0 out of 5 stars Venice from a unique perspective, June 27, 2010

By 

J. Brinitzer "artheals" (folsom, Ca.) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Seeing Venice: An Eye in Love : An Inner Travelogue With 94 Drawings (Codhill Press) (Paperback)

This is a lovely book with many of Francks observations and drawings while spending time in Venice.