Venetian Life [Paperback]

W.D. Howells (Author), Joseph Pennell (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 2001

William Dean Howells (1837-1920) was an American realist author and literary critic. He wrote his first novel, Their Wedding Journey, in 1871, but his literary reputation really took off with the realist novel A Modern Instance, published in 1882, which describes the decay of a marriage. His 1885 novel The Rise of Silas Lapham is perhaps his best known, describing the rise and fall of an American entrepreneur in the paint business. His social views were also strongly reflected in the novels Annie Kilburn (1888) and A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890). While known primarily as a novelist, his short story "Editha" (1905) - included in the collection Between the Dark and the Daylight (1907) - appears in many anthologies of American literature. Howells also wrote plays, criticism, and essays about contemporary literary figures such as Ibsen, Zola, Verga, and, especially, Tolstoy, which helped establish their reputations in the United States. He also wrote critically in support of many American writers. It is perhaps in this role that he had his greatest influence.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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From the Back Cover

In 1860, W. D. Howells wrote a campaign biography of Abraham Lincoln. When Lincoln won the presidency, Howells was rewarded with the job of consul in Venice.

He arrived there in 1862, aged twenty-five, and lived for three years on the Grand Canal. Howells would use the canal for a morning swim during the warmer months and then, perhaps, go off to his office.

For a young nineteenth-century American who had left school at age nine in order to work, the hardest part of his sinecure was that-no doubt for the first time in his experience-he had almost nothing to do. "I dreaded the easily formed habit of receiving a salary for no service performed," he wrote. "I reminded myself that, soon or late, I must go back to the old fashion of earning money, and that it had better be sooner than later." And so-"though for some strange reasons it was the saddest and strangest thing in the world to do"-Howells left Venice. While he was on the whole happy to do so, Howells said upon his departure, "Never had the city seemed so dream-like and unreal as in this light of farewell." Venetian Life flows from the enchantment, the magical improbability of the years Howells spent in that magnificent city dining with the rich, mingling with the humble, and reporting on it all with a uniquely American wit and curiosity.

About the Author

W. D. Howells (1837-1920) is one of America's most important men of letters. In addition to writing such classics as The Rise of Silas Lapham (Norton, 1982) and Italian Journeys (Marlboro Books/Northwestern, 1999), Howells served as editor of the Atlantic Monthly and Harper's and authored novels, dramas, autobiographical works, and books of travel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 317 pages
• Publisher: Marlboro Press (February 21, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810160854
• ISBN-13: 978-0810160859
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,321,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, July 27, 2010

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This review is from: Venetian Life (Kindle Edition)

This is an excellent description of Venice by an Englishman who visited it, most likely in the early 1860s. It's the second edition, dated 1867, though I couldn't find what year it was written or what year he visited. The first chapter is the most difficult and least enjoyable to read- it tells how Venice has been ruled by Austria for years, and the Venetians aren't happy about it, so the city has lost all of the gaiety for which it is famous. The rest of the book is descriptions of the city and its buildings, the people, the economy, the canals, traditions, etc. He rarely mentions any people he meets, so it's rather impersonal.