The Smiles of Rome: A Literary Companion for Readers and Travelers [Paperback]

Susan Cahill (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2005

Take a Roman holiday with some of the world’s greatest writers

Explore the Palatine with Elizabeth Bowen. Visit the temple of the Vestal Virgins with Georgina Masson. Analyze Michelangelo’s Moses with Sigmund Freud. Stroll through ancient streets with Goethe and with Henry James. Share Alice Steinbach’s midnight epiphany on a shabby hotel balcony. Learn the art of love from Ovid. Visit villas and gardens with Edith Wharton. Enjoy Rome’s myriad moods and pleasures with Robert Browning, Eleanor Clark, Susan Vreeland, and many others.

An irresistible collection of writing about one of the world’s most beloved destinations, The Smiles of Rome spans the centuries from ancient times to the present day. Each essay resonates with the richness and turmoil of the past and overflows with a great wealth of fascinating facts and intriguing tidbits for today’s avid readers and travelers.

“Rome,” writes Susan Cahill, “has the power to blow your mind and heart.” This delicious, many-layered collection honoring the city that is the heart and soul of European civilization has the same power to thrill.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Collecting the essays, stories and poems of great writers from both the ancient and modern worlds, this volume offers an intoxicating and often heartbreaking tribute to the elusive power of the eternal city. "Rome does not need to make culture," Federico Fellini states in a conversation reproduced here, "It is culture." Edith Wharton assuaged her loneliness in the gardens of the Villa Borghese, and Nathaniel Hawthorne conceded, "Rome certainly does draw into itself my heart." Turning an already stellar selection of writings into a practical guide for the literary-minded, editor Cahill then extracts from each piece the places mentioned and provides updated information (including addresses, phone numbers and nearby dining suggestions) for the traveler who wishes to retrace the steps of Goethe and St. Paul, among others. Through these pages, the city lives, breathes and seduces. How can one go wrong with Ovid's instructive and witty "The Art of Love" or John Updike's "Twin Beds in Rome," a bracing short story of a couple haunted by the city's ghosts as well as their own? "Rome is surely the most beautiful city in Italy, if not the world," wrote Pier Paolo Pasolini. "But it is also the most ugly, the most welcoming, the most dramatic, the richest, the most wretched." This dichotomy has bewitched people for centuries, whether they be icons of literature or not, and those who haven't visited Rome may find themselves planning their own trip after perusing this vibrant collection.
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From Booklist

Travel to Italy is one of life's sublime experiences. Just ask--actually, read--these many and varied individuals who give their impressions of Italy. Editor Cahill has culled excerpts from travel narratives, fictionalized accounts, and even poetry and an interview for a rich feast of words about travel to, specifically, the Italian capital. Rome has piqued the interest of, and prompted the recording of acute reactions from, the classic Italian poet Ovid, Anglo-Irish novelist Elizabeth Bowen, director Federico Fellini, and even Freud (who writes a curious critique on Michelangelo's statue of Moses), among other writers and thinkers. Each writer is introduced with a brief background sketch, and at the end of each piece, Cahill gives information on visiting the particular sites the author has discussed. A welcome addition to the travel-literature collection. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 034543420X
• ISBN-13: 978-0345434203
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #696,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, April 17, 2007

By 

Borromini - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Smiles of Rome: A Literary Companion for Readers and Travelers (Paperback)

This book puts the enigmatic charm of Rome into words. There are also some useful suggestions for restaurants and sites to see. This book would be most useful to someone that has been there before and would be able to identify with the experiences and places described. Perfect for just before a visit, or just to remind yourself of what it was like to be there.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Smiles of Rome, April 5, 2011

By 

Ginger2 "Ginger2" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Smiles of Rome: A Literary Companion for Readers and Travelers (Paperback)

I'm on my way to visit Rome once again and chanced across this book. While I haven't finished it yet, what I've read is absolutely marvelous. Her choices of writers include some many well know authors (Hawthorne, Freud, Ovid, whom I'd never read before and was astounded by his "The Art of Love".) The characters written about come alive. If you have been to Rome before and are going again, the next trip will be more meaningful for you. I can't wait to leave next week and plan to take the book with me to refresh my memory. Highly recommended.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars _Smiles_ May Leave You Less Than Amused, April 20, 2009

By 

Wendell Ricketts "Wendell Ricketts" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Smiles of Rome: A Literary Companion for Readers and Travelers (Paperback)

Though The Smiles of Rome is one of those books that are classically recommended to travelers to Italy, especially first-time travelers, it struck me as a colossal bore. What becomes obvious is that Cahill made her selections less on literary merit and more on their ability to lend themselves to an itinerary or the frequency with which they mentioned churches, bridges, museums, or other monuments that Cahill wanted to highlight. The result is that the writing is extremely uneven when it isn't utterly obscure (Freud's essay on the Moses of Michelangelo is just plain odd, while Browning's and Vittoria Colonna's poetry, along with Michelangelo's sonnets, is just plain dull). Other selections are eccentric and bad-fitting (excerpts from Morante's History, a few of Peter's Letters to the Romans, and a strange little interview with Fellini about La Dolce Vita are examples of pieces whose unease in this context is palpable), giving the sense of having been smacked into place with blows of a hammer rather than gentled into the book because of their beauty or appropriateness. Eleanor Clark's piece on the Protestant Cemetery is readable only because its subject matter is so interesting, though the truth of the matter is that her baffling thickets of clauses and qualifiers are utterly maddening; Updike's contribution is a genuine nullity, though he is far from the only writer to be included here for his name rather than for the quality or intrinsic interest of the writing that Cahill anthologizes. As a practical matter, The Smiles of Rome was published more than four years ago and its advice about restaurants or museum hours is no longer useful; browse the book in the library for the walking tours at the end of each chapter or cadge its bibliography, but spend your money on another book about Rome.